Monday
Nitro #169
Date:
December 28, 1998
Location:
1st Mariner Center, Baltimore, Maryland
Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
Starrcade
is gone now and the main story coming out of the show is Nash
stopping Goldberg's winning streak last night and winning the World
Title. Other than that we saw Bischoff beating Flair in the big
match of their feud, because Heaven forbid Bischoff's ego not get
stroked at the biggest show of the year. We close out an up and down
year tonight so let's get to it.
We
open with the announcers talking about the big matches from last
night and get to see Eric's Greatest Hits, which is basically Eric
kicking Flair in the head.
Nitro
Party winner.
Here
are Miller and Onoo to talk about how he's going to whip somebody.
This brings out Jericho and Ralphus of all people, but they're just
here to introduce Cat's real opponent.
The
Cat vs. Shiima Nobunaga
Jericho
and Ralphus are in Shiima's corner. Chris: “COME ON DO SOME
KARATE!” Tony points out that Nobunaga doesn't speak English which
makes this funnier. Miller and Jericho have mics during the match
but don't say much of anything. Cat kicks Shiima in the face and
catches him in a powerslam. The Feliner is good for the pin in less
than 90 seconds. I'm not sure what the point of this was.
Stills
of Goldberg vs. Nash last night.
Clip
of Flair having a heart attack, even though that wasn't a focal point
of the match at all last night.
Chavo
Guerrero Jr. vs. Norman Smiley
They
circle each other to start until Chavo goes to talk to Pepe. Norman
grabs a wristlock as the announcers talk about Nash not seeing Hall
interfere. A clothesline puts Chavo down and it's time to dance.
Chavo comes back with a dropkick to put Smiley on the floor and rides
the horse around the ring. Back in and Norman takes him down again,
setting up the Big Wiggle. There's the swinging slam and Norman
fires an arrow into the air. Chavo gets caught in a chinlock before
dancing out of a sunset flip.
Larry
officially christens the dance the Big Wiggle to make this show
historic. Now it's time to dance with Pepe but that's just going too
far and sends Chavo into a frenzy. The fans don't mind but it's a
nice idea at least. A middle rope bulldog drops Smiley and it's time
for Chavo to dance. Norman runs him over and grabs the horse, asking
it who's your daddy. Smiley gets crotched on the top rope and
slapped in the face, but the horse distraction lets Norman slap on
the Conquest for the win.
Rating:
D. For dancing of course. The
match was nothing special with the dancing taking up WAY too much
time. It's fun to see it happen once but they hit about seven or
eight times. That's just way too much and it stops being funny after
about two. At least Norman won though as his moderate push
continues.
Clip
of Raven leaving last week.
Booker
T. vs. Fit Finlay
Finlay
doesn't feel like waiting and blasts Booker during the posing on the
buckles. He hammers away and they head outside where Booker nails a
quick kick to the face and whips Finlay into the barricade. Oddly
enough there's no talk of Finlay's match last night. It's almost
like it meant absolutely nothing at all and even Finlay's mom
wouldn't have wanted to watch it. Back in and Finlay grabs a quick
slam for two and we hit the chinlock.
Booker
fights up with some elbows and a clothesline before nailing the side
kick. Some knees to the ribs have almost no effect on Finlay as he
comes back with a jawbreaker and European uppercuts. Booker
is sent into the corner but comes back with the spinning sunset flip
for two. Finlay nails an
atomic drop and sends Booker outside, only to have Booker come back
with another sidekick and the missile dropkick for the pin.
Rating:
C-. Not bad here but Finlay has
really fallen back to earth after his nearly worthless TV Title reign
over the summer. It's the best match of the night so far though,
which is likely due to who was in the ring. I still can't get my
head around the fact that Booker didn't make Starrcade but Finlay
did. Finlay is definitely talented enough but it didn't make any
sense.
Here's
Flair with some luggage for
the first important moment of the show. He
says he doesn't deserve this kind of a welcome because Bischoff beat
him last night. Last night he went back to the hotel, called Arn,
got drunk, then called his wife because it was over. He got on the
plane and the flight attendant asked him what he wanted. Well Flair
wanted to go to Baltimore so he's right here tonight.
Now
Flair wants Bischoff to hear him out for the very last time. Flair
rips off his jacket and shirt, takes out another suit from the
luggage and throws it down. There's a third suit with ties to match
but Flair is ranting about living the life of a king because the
people have allowed him to. Now he unbuckles his belt, saying it
cost him $2,000. There's a $30,000 Rolex to match and now he's
ripping up $100 bills.
A
shoe is launched into the crowd and there go Flair's pants. He
struts around in boxers and drops a knee on the mat before screaming
that he isn't leaving until he and Bischoff get something straight.
Flair offers his house, cars and every dime he has to Bischoff if
Eric will fight him one more time tonight. One
more condition though: if Flair wins, he's in charge for ninety
days. Why wasn't THIS the
match for Starrcade?
Flair's
first act if he wins: detatch Eric's head from Hogan's censored. Ric
goes on another rant about WCW vs. the NWO before going to his last
piece of luggage. This time it's handcuffs and he attaches himself
to the ropes. We go to a break with Flair still yelling for
Bischoff. If the camera goes off, he'll be naked when it comes back.
Back
with the boxers still on and Flair saying WOO. He goes off on
Bischoff again and now Eric is on his way. Eric laughs at the
handcuffed Flair who can't reach him at all. Bischoff talks about
all the things he's done to Flair recently and takes the money from
the mat. He says Flair is
going to die of a heart attack. Flair: “When I die of a heart
attack, it'll be on your girlfriend pal!” The challenge is
accepted for later tonight.
Nitro
Girls calendar.
Nitro
Girls.
Barry
Windham vs. Prince Iaukea
Windham
goes right after him to start but gets caught by a dropkick and some
lame right hands. That's fine with Barry as he pops Iaukea in the
jaw and suplexes him down for two. Back up and Windham no sells some
more right hands and hits his old jumping DDT. Instead of covering
though it's a belly to back suplex on Iaukea before Barry throws him
outside to continue the beating. Back in and Iaukea's comeback goes
nowhere, setting up Windham's bulldog for the pin.
Rating:
D. Total squash here with Barry
never even breaking a sweat. Iaukea has done almost nothing in a
year and is really just filling in a spot on the card. Yeah he's a
former TV Champion, but he's still one of the least interesting
people I've ever seen on a wrestling show. Barry didn't look great
but it could have been worse.
A
security guard talks about the stun gun Hall used last night being
very powerful.
Souled
Out ad.
DDP
comes out and brags about beating Giant last night. He talks about
the two main matches from Starrcade and that's really about it. He'd
love to work for Flair.
Konnan
is arguing with Disco Inferno when Nash and Luger come in. After
yelling at Disco even more, Nash offers Disco a deal: if he can beat
Nash's handpicked opponent tonight, Disco is on the team. Nash
says he has to go and make things right.
Eddie
Guerrero/Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman/Rey Mysterio Jr.
This
should be good as it's
fallout from the two Cruiserweight Title matches last night.
Guerrero, Guerrera and Mysterio are in the LWO but Rey doesn't want
to be. Mysterio comes out
with his LWO shirt folded in his hand. Kidman
is Cruiserweight Champion. Eddie
throws Juvy into the corner just after the bell but Guerrera backs
away without fighting back. Rey
and Eddie get things going with Eddie running him over and
then suplexing Rey to the mat.
Back
up and a Japanese armdrag sends Eddie running into the corner to
cower in front of the referee. Guerrero brings Guerrera into the
ring with a slap to the face but Juvy backs away from Kidman. The
backing off doesn't seem necessary as he clotheslines Kidman down but
Eddie doesn't feel like coming back in. Kidman avoids a charge in
the corner though and suplexes Juvy down before tagging Rey back in.
There's the Bronco Buster in the corner as Eddie is lounging in his
team's corner without looking concerned.
Juvy
crawls over and tags Eddie in with Guerrero going nuts to take over.
Everything breaks down with Eddie and Juvy taking over, only to have
Rey nail a springboard dropkick to knock Juvy into Eddie, sending
both of them to the floor. Rey and Kidman hit stereo flip dives to
take everyone out. We take
a break and come back with Juvy holding Kidman in a chinlock but
getting caught in a bulldog out of the corner.
Back
to Rey vs. Eddie with the masked man taking over but going after
Guerrera instead of the legal man, allowing Eddie to get in a cheap
shot to take over. Everything
breaks down for a few seconds and Guerrera grabs a powerbomb to put
Mysterio down to get control. The match settles down again and it's
Eddie chopping away in the corner. Something
like the Eye of the Storm into a neckbreaker gets two on Rey with
Kidman having to make the save.
In
an awesome double team move, Eddie loads up Rey in a powerbomb and
Juvy adds a springboard legdrop to drive Rey down even harder.
Somehow Rey is right back up though and whips Guerrero into
Guerrera's boot, only to have Juvy break up a tag attempt. Eddie
is already back up and hammers on Rey, but the LWO heels collide and
Kidman comes in off the hot tag.
The
champion cleans house and holds up Eddie for a powerbomb as Rey adds
a springboard seated senton to drive Eddie down even harder than
Mysterio was driven down earlier. Juvy makes another save and
everything breaks down. Eddie's
powerbomb attempt to Kidman goes badly (of course) but Guerrero is up
at two. The BK Bomb puts Guerrero down again and a facebuster does
the same to Juvy. Eddie throws Rey to the floor for a big dive from
Juvy, allowing Guerrero to nail the Frog Splash for the pin on
Kidman.
Rating:
B. This is one of those matches
that you couldn't screw up. You took four guys and let them fly
around the ring for fifteen minutes while having a story involved as
well. What else was going to happen but some awesome work? Those
double team powerbomb spots were really cool looking with the
powerbomb Eddie took being a big highlight.
That
would be about it for the LWO though as Eddie Guerrero would be
involved in a car wreck on New Year's Day, putting him out of action
for several months. There would be some closure to the team and
we'll get to that in a few weeks.
Here's
the Wolfpack for Nash's victory speech. He
doesn't seem too happy though as he's seen the way the match ended.
Nash was there last night for money, power and respect, but
apparently money is the root of all evil. He suddenly veers off
course to say Disco is facing Bam Bam Bigelow tonight and if Disco
wins, he's in the Wolfpack. Back to Hall, who Nash thinks was doing
him a favor. Nash respects Goldberg so much that he's willing to put
the title on the line again next week in Atlanta. The new champion
points out that the belt still has Goldberg's name on it, just like
it will going into their match next week. There's
the setup.
Disco
Inferno vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Bigelow
hammers away to start and throws Disco into the corner with ease.
Another whip into the corner is followed by a splash and a big slam
but Disco avoids the top rope headbutt. The swinging neckbreaker
puts Bigelow down and Disco actually nails the Chartbuster for two.
Bigelow pops back up and hits Greetings From Asbury Park (over the
shoulder reverse piledriver) for the pin in less than three minutes.
Nitro
Girls.
Bischoff
is warming up with Curt Hennig.
Flair's
physician says, in a lot of
medical terms, that Ric
didn't have a heart attack, but did have toxins in his body, meaning
he may have been poisoned. This sounds like backtracking to me,
though it does explain a few things. If nothing else it makes WCW
look a lot less negligent about the health of its wrestlers.
Bischoff
calls the doctor a quack. It
sounds like he's nervous that someone would suggest poison.
TV
Title: Konnan vs. Scott Steiner
Konnan
is defending. Bagwell runs
his mouth before the match but Konnan uses the distraction to lay out
the NWO Referee. WCW referee Scott Dickinson comes out to referee
instead but Konnan has to save him from a Steiner attack before the
bell. A quick clothesline sends Steiner rolling to the floor but
Buff gives him a pep talk. Back in and Konnan gets planted with a
release tiger bomb before Steiner takes it outside. That goes
nowhere so Scott throws him inside again and hammers away. Scott
stays on him and spits on the Wolfpack t-shirt for good measure.
Konnan
is put in the Tree of Woe so Scott can work on the leg a bit before
Buff gets in some choking of his own. A belly to belly suplex sets
up the push-ups from Steiner but Konnan counters a powerslam into a
reverse DDT. The champion hammers away and hits the X-Factor before
putting on the Tequila Sunrise. Bagwell tries to make the save but
Luger runs out to stop him. The distraction breaks the hold though
and Steiner is back up. Luger knocks Bagwell into the ropes and
causes Konnan to fall to the floor, allowing Steiner to put on the
Recliner for the title.
Rating:
D. So why in the world wasn't
this match on Starrcade? I'm glad Jericho got on the show, but you
would think this would be a better option for the biggest show of the
year. Granted it's not like it matters as it's just more trading
wins between the NWO, which really gets annoying after awhile. That
awhile was roughly four months ago.
The
announcers think Luger is up to something with Steiner.
Nitro
Girls.
No
Thunder this week due to New Year's Eve.
Brian
Adams vs. Scott Hall
Before
the match, Scott agrees with Kevin. There are three things that are
important in life: money, money and money. He handed Nash the title
and then Nash didn't even invite him to the victory party? Hall
isn't the man Nash used to know, but Nash isn't the man Hall used to
know. The fans chant for
Goldberg before we get going.
Adams
decks Hall to start and hits a nice backbreaker for two. Hall
comes back with right hands but ducks his head and gets caught in
what was supposed to be a piledriver but came out more like a
pancake. Instead of covering though, Adams messes with his hair and
puts on a bearhug. A belly to belly puts Scott again but there's
still no cover. Brian finally hits a big boot for two and we hit the
nerve hold. The fans think this is boring so Adams just lets the
hold go. Hall makes a comeback but can't get him up for the Edge.
Instead Brian press slams him, only to pose on the corner. Scott
grabs the Edge for the fast pin.
Rating:
D-. Nothing here again but at
least Hall got a pin instead of being treated like the loser he's
been for so long now. He's still stuck in the middle of this never
ending story with Nash and the NWO but that's the case for almost
every big name in WCW. It's nice to see Adams lose like the jobber
to the stars he should be.
Ric
Flair vs. Eric Bischoff
Flair
being in power for 90 days vs. all of Flair's possessions. There's
no Bischoff though as we see him in the back saying no way. Eric
comes into the arena to get to an exit but the Horsemen are waiting
in his limo to carry him to the arena. Nice move. The bell rings
and Flair hits Bischoff low before chopping away in the corner.
There's another low blow and some choking as the referee counts
especially slow. Not that it matters as Flair throws Charles
Robinson down anyway.
The
NWO tries to run in but the Horsemen are waiting for them in the
aisle. Flair drops some elbows as the Horsemen cut off another group
of NWO guys. The Giant finally comes out as the Horsemen are busy
fighting and a big headbutt drops Flair. Anderson, Booker
T., Konnan and Page come out
as a JACKED Randy Savage and a good looking blonde come out in Black
and White gear. It's a swerve of course as Savage hits Giant low and
clotheslines him to the floor. Flair suplexes Bischoff down and
slaps on the Figure Four to become the boss for three months.
Rating:
N/A. This wasn't a match but
the angle worked very well. This felt like a big moment and a game
changer for WCW. That being said, the question should be obvious:
why in the world did Bischoff need to get the win at Starrcade?
Either have this match last night or have it be a no contest of some
sort. This moment taking place is fine, but how many people remember
this compared to Bischoff getting the win at Starrcade?
This felt like running back to fix an error and
it worked to a degree. However,
a lot of the damage was already done due to the fans feeling like
they had been punched in the stomach the night before.
Tony,
Dusty and Larry come to the ring to celebrate as Tenay plays this up
as a huge moment. Flair puts on another Figure Four to end the show.
Heenan: “I CAN HIT HIM UP FOR A RAISE!”
Overall
Rating: C+. This was a hard one
to grade because of the first hour. It took me out of the show after
wanting to see where things were going after Starrcade last night.
The show wasn't terrible and the ending was especially good, but
opening with Ernest Miller followed by Norman Smiley and then Fit
Finlay just wasn't the right way to go here and it really hurt the
opening part of the show.
On
the other hand there's a lot of good stuff here too. Savage coming
back was a great surprise and Flair winning control of the company
was a change they needed to make. Bischoff being in charge just
wasn't going to work and it's nice to see WCW FINALLY getting
something to work right. The
cruiserweight tag match was good too. This would have been an
awesome two hour show if they had switched the order of some stuff,
but as a three hour show it's just slightly
better than ok.
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
Holy cow. I know WWE ran the "two segment opening promo by the champ or defeated challenger" the night after a PPV into the ground, but opening the show after your biggest PPV where your undefeated champion lost in controversial fashion with still photos/clips focusing on Bischoff followed by a dumb comedy segment with Ernest Miller and then another comedy segment with Norman Smiley? And Goldberg doesn't even appear on the show? That is mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteGoldberg not appearing is fine with me. He's never been one to talk so there wasn't much for him to do.
ReplyDeleteThe Flair promo may very well be his best ever. The perfect combination of passion, humor, and hatred...a masterpiece of the art; the likes of which we will likely never see again.
ReplyDelete"He got on the
ReplyDeleteplane and the flight attendant asked him what he wanted. Well Flair
wanted to go to Baltimore so he's right here tonight."
Um. There are no flights from DC to Baltimore. In fact, they're served by the same airport (Thurgood Marshall B/W Int'l). I mean, never let the facts get in the way of an amazing promo, but as a DC native, that really took me out of it.
To this day, I still have no idea what they were shooting for with that Savage swerve.
ReplyDeleteFlair winning felt like a huge moment. It seemed like Savage would help WCW against the nWo , but, you know. A very memorable way to end 1998.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up out west, we had Nitro from 5-7 and Raw from 9-11.
Those were the days.
This was the show that turned Flair babyface for the rest of his life. This is how you work-shoot.
ReplyDeleteThey started doing those Tuesday Nitros late in the year and Goldberg appeared on those rather than the Monday show a lot of the times. The inner workings of WCW be crazy.
ReplyDeleteHere in Lexington (and I'm assuming elsewhere), Nitro aired again immediately after Raw. I'd watch the first hour of Nitro, all of Raw, then all of NItro again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't remember Savage appearing here at all.
ReplyDeleteLetting Flair have the spotlight probably saved us 15 years of him bitching and moaning on roundtables about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of a historic show for me since it was the first time I was allowed to stay up and watch an entire episode of both Nitro and Raw due to Christmas break (I was in elementary school and my parents weren't exactly fond of wrestling). I "watched" Starrcade via scramblevision and was largely ticked over the show but this Nitro made up for it, especially since Raw was a throwaway show (just looked up the results and the main event was Road Dogg vs Mankind with Shawn Michaels rejoining DX). Little did we know how short that good feeling this show brought would last.
ReplyDeleteKonnan's reign sucked, but this show marks the true death of the TV Title.
ReplyDeleteDon't hate on Shiima "CIMA" Nobunaga, Hall, them's fightin' words. CIMA is awesome.
ReplyDeleteSo next week is the Fingerpoke, right?
I was at Starrcade 98 with my buddy and we were PISSED at the Bischoff/Flair match (as was everyone else in the arena). I remember watching Nitro with him the next night and during the Flair/Bisch stuff we were going, "well this is pretty awesome...why couldn't we see this when we actually f'n paid for it?"
ReplyDeleteFrom this happy ending Nitro to Next week. Pretty incredible when you think about the range of positive to negative WCW would take the fans.
ReplyDeleteI was there as well but was a total nWo Hollywood mark so I loved it.
ReplyDeleteim a huge norman smiley mark, loved his screaming gimmick!
ReplyDeleteummm no. his run with little naitch his was a heel, and a great one at that. loved that angle. "im the president, i do what i want to do when i wanna do it , woooooooooooo"
ReplyDeleteReply
2nd to the last nitro ever which brought tears to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteSame with his one after Raw that is on his first DVD. The Flair Appreciation Show in North Carolina where all the guys came out of the back to celebrate with him and he is crying through the whole thing. It was very emotional.
ReplyDeletePeople under the influence of kamikazes tell fascinating tales.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite wrestling entrance of all time was when he came out with the Vegas showgirls, and they all did the Big Wiggle.
ReplyDeleteHe worked heel but no one felt like booing him though. Look at his double-turn with Hogan. Fans completely no-sold it.
ReplyDeleteNot hating on him. Just not the right spot for him here.
ReplyDeleteAlthough with the traffic on 95 sometimes I wish there were flights between the two.
ReplyDelete