This was written over a year ago so I might miss a few details from previous shows. I need the extra time to get ready for Wrestlemania though so it's a lucky break.
Monday
Nitro #162
Date: November 9, 1998
Location: Nassau
Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Commentators: Tony
Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan
This is another request
and I have no idea what it was requested for. This would be a few
weeks after Halloween Havoc and about two weeks before World War 3.
Goldberg is world champion but the top feud is Bret Hart vs. the top
faces he hasn't injured yet. The bottom hasn't fallen out yet for
the company but you can see them standing on the cracks. Let's get
to it.
We open with a montage
of Hogan saying he's running for President. He announced this on the
Tonight Show and I'm just going to move past it. It's a montage of
his pictures and that's about it. Think the Real American video but
not as impressive.
Gene and Bobby are in
the back waiting for Hogan and here's a limo. Make that two limos.
It's both NWO teams and they immediately brawl. Hall gets thrown in
a trash can. Why do I have a feeling that isn't the first time
that's happened to him? Konnan holds off Giant with a pipe and
that's about it.
We get some clips of
Bret hurting DDP and Sting for some reason.
Kaz Hayashi vs.
Juventud Guerrera
Things speed up
immediately and here's Bischoff to the announce desk. He says that
the President will be here tonight and Gene needs to stay where he
is. I'm so glad we stopped looking at a fast paced match to look at
Bischoff's back as he talked. The fans chant various curses at
Bischoff as Juvy takes over with some kicks in the corner. He goes
up but jumps into a dropkick from Kaz. Hayashi is one of those guys
that was talented but never went anywhere for various reasons.
Tenay points out that
the NWO battle in the parking lot did in fact take place in the
parking lot. Thanks for that Professor. After a quick trip to the
floor, Kaz takes him back inside and pops Juvy in the head. Juvy
tries a dive of some sort but Hayashi moves, sending Juvy through the
ropes to the floor. A BIG springboard dive takes Juvy down and Kaz
is in full control. There's a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and a
dropkick to the ribs as Kaz focuses on the back and ribs, hence why
he used a move to each of them.
The idiot fans think
this is boring for some reason. Off to a rib stretching hold by
Hayashi but it's quickly broken up. The fans are still chanting
boring for some reason. They chop it out and man those things are
HARD. Kaz chops him into the corner and we actually get a commercial
break in this match. Back with Juvy kicking Kaz down and diving to
the floor to take both guys out.
Back in and Kaz
clotheslines Guerrera down and the match slows down a bit. Kaz
stands around too much and gets caught in a sunset flip for two. A
brainbuster puts Juvy down for two. Juvy kicks him in the ribs but
his powerbomb is countered into a rollup for two. Here are Sonny
Onoo and Ernest Miller to watch as we continue this amazing Onoo vs.
Hayashi feud. As the camera is on Miller, we can see Guerrera
hitting a hurricanrana in the background. You know, the unimportant
stuff. Juvy Driver is countered and Kaz rolls up Guerrera, only to
have Miller distract the referee. Sonny kicks Kaz in the head and
Juvy rolls him up for the pin.
Rating:
B-.
Bad ending aside, this was a pretty solid TV opener. How often do
you see a cruiserweight match with guys of this name value get twelve
minutes on Nitro? If this is the result I'd be fine with it
happening more often. Good fast paced match here, even though the
ending was designed to set up a tag match at the PPV.
We get clips of Nash
getting beaten up by the NWO from a few weeks back. They're really
pushing the random videos tonight for some reason.
Alex Wright vs.
Barry Horowitz
Yes that Barry
Horowitz. Wright makes sure to tell the ring announcer that he does
not want to hear ANYTHING from the crowd during the match. You know,
because Barry Horowitz requires perfect silence to beat. Barry jumps
him but Wright takes him right down to the mat. Horowitz comes back
with a European Uppercut to show up the German but Wright gets up two
feet in the corner to stop a charge. We see what looks like a Secret
Service guy as Wright hits a dropkick for two. They head to the
floor and the Wolfpac howl goes off. Here they come and the match
just kind of ends. Too short to rate but it was nothing.
Konnan does his usual
stuff and Nash quotes Popeye, saying that he can't stand anymore.
That's an image I never thought I would see. He talks about the
brawl earlier with the Black and White and says the Wolfpac is never
going to back down. Nash issues an open challenge to ANY combination
of the Black and White for later but he wants Hall in it in some
form. Luger says he wants Bret, who injured him a few weeks ago, and
Konnan rambles incoherently. Cue Bischoff who calls Nash Estrogen
Boy. They'll get the Black and White tonight and just wait in the
ring. Nash calls Bischoff Estrogen Boy to close it out. Ok then.
Lodi vs. Scott
Norton
Wasn't the Wolfpac
supposed to stay in the ring? Apparently it'll be Hall/Giant vs.
Luger/Nash later. Chop, powerbomb, pin, Norton wins. This was
nothing, again.
Here's Disciple of all
people for a chat. He says he's his own man but here are Stevie Ray,
Horace and Vincent. Gee what a threatening group. Horace gets to be
the mouthpiece and it's instantly clear why he NEVER got to do that
more than once. Disciple argues back and there's the three on one
beatdown. Horace whips him with a belt but Disciple fights back.
The beating continues until Warrior comes out for the save and a big
reaction. There's an OWN shirt shown and that's it. No literally
that's it, as Warrior was never seen in WCW or any major company
again until he would be brought back for the WWE Hall of Fame.
Gene and Bobby are in
the back again and are apparently waiting on the arrival of Bill
Clinton. We get a shot of a motorcade arriving and some people in
suits, who are supposed to be Secret Service agents (now that guy
from earlier makes sense), tell Gene to leave. There are two limos
here at least. The cameramen are shoved back and we cut to the arena
with some Presidential music playing.
Of course it's not
Clinton, but rather Hogan with a bunch of boas around his neck. The
announcers tell us that Hogan will announce his running mate here
tonight as well. There's a huge American flag being lowered from the
ceiling and Bischoff is here too. Is this some kind of big joke
because of Jesse Ventura? It's not the worst idea in the world.
Hogan talks about how
Jesse the Mind Ventura is steering Minnesota in the right direction
and how proud he is of Jesse. Hogan says his phone has been ringing
off the hook and he's decided that he's running for President with
Bischoff as the campaign manager. No party is mentioned but we do
get a Monica Lewinsky cigar joke.
Buy WCW/NWO Revenge!
No really, that game was good, and it's only $70 from WCW!
Here's Bret Hart for a
chat. As he's coming to the ring we get a clip from last week with
him injuring DDP in the Sharpshooter. Bret says Luger was lucky to
escape with his life last week and that Sting needs to get well
because there's more where that came from. As for DDP, he's in a
hospital thanking God that his career isn't over. Bret says just
send him the belt and everything will be cool. Tonight he'll beat up
Konnan and that's about it. It never ceases to amaze me how much
they wasted Bret in WCW.
Eddie Guerrero vs.
Rey Mysterio Jr.
Rematch from Thunder
where the time limit ran out. Eddie is the leader and wants Rey
involved but Mysterio wants nothing to do with them. Eddie offers
Rey a shirt before the match but Rey holds up his own shirt in
response. Rey trips up a charging Eddie and pounds away on the
ropes. Guerrero bails to the floor and comes back in on his knees.
That's a new way of begging for mercy. Well new to wrestling at
least.
A headscissors puts
Eddie back on the floor so it's time to change strategies. Eddie
takes Rey's knee out and stomps away at it and Mysterio is in
trouble. Eddie's powerbomb is countered into a sunset flip but Eddie
rolls through into a leg lock. Rey is put on the apron and Guerrero
cannonballs down onto the leg over the top rope. Back into the ring
and it's another leg lock but Rey rolls him up for two.
Leg lock number three
goes on and things slow down a lot. Rey gets to the ropes and
manages to climb the ropes and hit a springboard headscissors to put
Eddie down, but his knee slows him down. Eddie dropkicks him back
down and it's time to go to the knee again. A slingshot hilo lands
on the knee and we head to the floor. Eddie dropkicks the steps into
Rey's knee which is up against the post. Mysterio is in big trouble
at this point.
Back to the leg lock as
things slow down again. The fans look at something on the left hand
side of the ring and even Eddie stops to look at it. Rey avoids a
charge in the corner and hits the Bronco Buster. A slingshot
moonsault gets two for Rey, followed by a jumping X Factor for no
cover. The layout bulldog gets another two for Rey but Eddie
suplexes him down to take over again. Eddie puts on another leg lock
but here's Crazy Chavo. Eddie yells at him, allowing Rey to roll him
up, botch the rollup, and then roll Eddie up again for the pin.
Rating:
B-.
This falls firmly in the category of pairings that you can't screw
up. The leg work here was fine and while I'm not wild on the ending,
the match worked fine. It was also a different style than you would
expect from these two but it still worked well. Good stuff here and
that's a sign of talent, as both of them were out of their element
with this style.
Rey saves Chavo from an
LWO beatdown post match.
Here's Bischoff who
says that he's still the boss even though he's Hogan's campaign
manager. Flair is still not wrestling because of a failed physical.
I believe that's the first explanation for why he hasn't been in the
ring. Eric talks about JJ Dillon overstepping his bounds by fining
Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner. Some attorneys come out and waste
more time before cracking some jokes and getting beaten up by
Bischoff. Joseph Park they are not.
We get a LONG recap of
Dillon fining Steiner and Bagwell from last week. The two of them
came out and terrorized Dillon and destroyed the announcers' desk.
Steiner says no one can control him and they called out Kenny Kaos,
who was Rick Steiner's interim tag title partner. Being the idiot
that he is, Kaos gets beaten down and laid out. Then on Thunder Nick
Patrick got beaten down as well.
Scott and Buff come out
with Scott saying his usual stuff, including a rant on Piper being
the commissioner and a coward. Apparently no referee will work a
Steiner match so Buff is going to do it. Scott demands an opponent
so here's what we get.
Scott Steiner vs.
Chris Adams
Uh...yeah. There's no
match here as it's a double beatdown. Rick Steiner runs out for the
save and says he'll find a partner and put the titles on the line
tonight.
Tag Titles: Scott
Steiner/Buff Bagwell vs. Rick Steiner/Judy Bagwell
Yes, it's Buff's mama.
Buff tries to hit his mom to start but she ducks and knocks him to
the floor. This is for the world tag team titles. Rick knocks Buff
to the floor and Buff says he's not fighting. Scott insults Judy and
there's a challenge for a match at the PPV. Judy says she'll do it
at the PPV and get paid this time. Only in WCW people.
Konnan vs. Bret Hart
This has to be better.
I mean, it's impossible for it to not be, even though it's another
battle of the NWO. Konnan immediately takes him down in the corner
and stomps away. Out to the floor we go and Bret is sent into the
barricade. Bret comes back with a rake to the eyes and we head back
inside. A bit of trivia for you: Konnan is credited as the man that
taught Bret the Sharpshooter. Bret nails the Russian legsweet but
the elbow hits a boot. Well the boot hits Bret's jaw but you get the
idea.
Konnan comes back with
some choking which doesn't give me a ton of confidence in his chances
of winning here. Bret gets pounded down in the corner but when
Konnan goes after the referee, Bret takes Konnan's knee out. You
know it's not going to take much to get Bret to go after an injured
limb and Konnan is in big trouble. The fans want Sting as Konnan's
leg is wrapped around the post. Bret hits the knee again and then
grabs a chair to beat on it for the DQ.
Rating:
C-.
This was all about adding another body to Bret's hit list and that's
fine. The match was nothing of note as Konnan wasn't in Bret's
league but he was a big enough name for this to mean something.
We're waiting on the big return to face Bret and it's going to be a
big reaction when it happens.
Luger makes the save
and Konnan goes out on a stretcher.
Gene asks Jericho to
come out here. Jericho says this is where he was born and he's glad
he left because this place sucks. Jericho asks “Greenberg” to
come out because he's 4-0 against him so far. Ralphus says Goldberg
isn't here but we see Goldberg in the back wrecking Jericho's stuff.
Jericho has his back to the monitor and has no idea this is going on.
Cue Goldberg, who sneaks up on Jericho and spears the tar out of
him. He talks some trash and leaves Jericho laying.
Kevin Nash/Lex Luger
vs. Giant/Scott Hall
Main event time. Hall
tosses the toothpick but Nash counters with some spit. Classy guy
there. Nash pounds him into the corner and hits the framed elbow and
long leg choke. I don't think we'll see much besides signature stuff
here, as is the custom for main events. Hall escapes Snake Eyes and
pounds away but Luger makes a quick save. Hall bails from some
deadly posing and Luger beats on him a bit, again with just signature
stuff.
Scott finally rakes the
eyes and gets Giant in and it's the same monster vs. any sized guy
stuff you've ever seen: Giant beats on him, Luger punches to no avail
and then Luger chokes. Hall comes in illegally and Luger has to beat
both of them up at once since Nash is looking for hair care products.
Giant finally hits Luger low to break the momentum and uses his
fattness to take over.
Back to Hall who chokes
in the corner as the fans chant for the Wolfpac. Has Nash just
fallen off the face of the earth or something? I know he's in the
corner but I haven't seen him do anything for about five minutes now.
Giant breaks up a tag to Nash and chokes Luger on the ropes, being
aided by Hall.
The Black and White
take turns for a few minutes with as basic an offensive set as you
could ask for. The fallaway slam looks to set up the Outsiders' Edge
but Lex backdrops out of it. Nash FINALLY gets the tag and cleans
house, hitting Snake Eyes on Hall and big boots for both guys. And
never mind as here's Bret attacking Nash's knee for the DQ.
Rating:
D+.
This was pretty dull but for a main event tag it wasn't the worst
match in the world. Hart coming in was a bit of a surprise so it
didn't come off as a cliché or anything like that. The NWO war
would go on for months until the point where no one could keep track
of who was on which side, nor would anyone care.
Bret, Hall and Giant
work over Nash's knee until Luger makes the save with a chair to end
the show.
Overall
Rating: C+.
While nothing great and still too long at three hours, this was a
pretty entertaining show. They let the cruiserweights do their thing
out there and the show worked far better as a result. It was a
bright spot in a pretty weak time for WCW, but the lack of Hogan vs.
Warrior is making this much easier to sit through.
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
Bulldog and hbk doing a surf board spot wow
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna lie... early China could have got it from me Her hotness peak was post boob job, pre nose/face/jaw stuff.
ReplyDeleteKing of the ring 1996 is fantastic. Highest recommendation. Some people were talking shit about the show earlier but that's fucking crazy talk. Ahmed vs Golddust was 100x better than it should have been including an insane tope from Ahmed, an amazing Austin promo and match vs mero, Lawler murdering the white trash crowd on his way to the ring, an incredible hbk vs dbs match, and a wild post match brawl between camp cornette and hbk/warrior/Ahmed to set up the next ppv, plus cornette claiming Jose lathario pulled a switch blade on him. Oh and Owen Hart killing it on commentary. What a show
ReplyDeleteThe us open tennis tournament pre empted it
ReplyDeleteHHH bitching about Austin not wanting to drop the title to him: Pot, kettle, black.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteAnd whoa. That is messed up. (Gotta love the cops keeping fans from going to the ring to stop a 187 in progress. Wrestling, folks.)
Bret as the bitter heel who puts guys on the shelf with injuries was just fine, but he was out again soon after this and lost whatever momentum he ever had in WCW
ReplyDeleteEarly Steph was awesome.
ReplyDeleteHuh, I'll have to check it out in the next few days, I remember so little of the PPV. By the way, a suggestion, check out Rebellion 2001. I put it on in the background and ended up getting into it. It's a pretty damn good PPV with some good matches.
ReplyDeleteYes she was and pretty hot as well.
ReplyDeleteJerry Lawler was THE FUCKING MAN. Its sad how much he sucks as a face but omg he was the greatest from 93 to 96. On his way to the ring he tell some fat 12 year old girl "Burger King? It looks you've been there one too many times! Hey when you wear blue do people try and put mail in you?
ReplyDeleteThen he tells these two little girls " Man faces like that will turn young boys into...well...men like golddust"
Just ruthless bullying of little kids near the ramp. It was glorious and the crowd was fucking crazy for it. Honestly the Dudley's ripped that shit off from Lawler and he did it way better.
Do you *really* believe that HHH only got as far as he did because he married Steph? I don't think so. I mean, maybe -- MAYBE -- the corporate side stuff. But as a performer he made all that stuff happened on his own and Vince <3s Big Lugs.
ReplyDeleteBut 15 minutes on this Romeo and Juliet romance in the documentary is killing me.
Yeah, it was the second time they could have run a Batman/Knightfall sort of deal. After getting beat down by Brock at SummerSlam, they can show the descent of Punk. He loses motivation and "quits", they could even have him tease drinking or something. Then makes his triumphant return around Royal Rumble or so and do an awesome run-up for Punk-Lesnar II, complete with Heyman-Punk promos
ReplyDeleteJust a friendly reminder that six months ago many of us were talking about a card something like this:
ReplyDeleteCena vs. Undertaker
Brock vs. Punk, Part II for a Title
Bryan vs. HHH, for the other Title
Orton vs. Batista
Shield vs. Wyatts
Cody vs. Goldust
There is literally nothing about the card we are getting that I prefer over the above scenario. Even Batista vs. Orton would have been fine if it was just "Batista's return match" or something, not the main event.
Watching Bash 92, wherein Vader does Sting like the Seahawks did the Broncos in February. I might be alone in this, but I liked the Bill Watts era in WCW, the emphasis on rules, the legitimizing of the sport aspect. Ross and Ventura were a great pair on commentary (even if they loathed each other) and the roster was solid and trimmed of much of the crap (coughPNNewscough) and dead weight (COUGHLUGERCOUGH) that dragged the company down the year prior. I wish Watts would had more of a chance.
ReplyDeletePeople who watched it liked it, but it just didn't make any money.
ReplyDeleteThis HHH documentary has softened my heart on him. I mean, I always knew he wasn't as bad as we make him out to be. He's on the level beneath Rock, Austin, Hogan and Flair. Which is a pretty great fucking level.
ReplyDeleteJR is full of shit when he says he respects no one than HHH more. He says that shit about Foley, Austin, Undertaker, and many others I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI believe it could totally work if you had a celeb that "got" it. Call me crazy, but I think Kevin Federline could have been a huge heel and he seemed ok with doing it.
ReplyDeleteThat and somebody shaving the People's Eyebrow were huge missed opportunities.
ReplyDeleteCaliber?
ReplyDeleteAnd what do you do for the other fifty people on the roster?
ReplyDeleteBooker T coming out to the Leave it to Beaver music was kind of funny.
ReplyDeleteHe was really into his role.
ReplyDeleteNo, not a terrible match by any means, but just the fact that Miz even walked in there as champ is reason enough to give it the spot, never mind the fucking terrible ending. Why not have Cena win, THEN have Rock attack?
ReplyDeleteFell throwing a punch. That takes talent,
ReplyDeleteHe's more of a boxer than Gunn. Faint praise, I know, but still.
ReplyDeleteBecause that cuts Miz's heel run as champ off at the knees? (Whether Miz deserved that or not is a debateable point.)
ReplyDeleteThey wanted Miz to have this invisible winning streak, I guess.
ReplyDeleteWell, that'll be over in 4 days.
ReplyDelete