Monday
Nitro #175
Date:
February 8, 1999
Location:
Marine Midland Arena, Buffalo, New York
Attendance:
15,378
Commentators:
Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We've got two
shows before SuperBrawl and some cracks are starting to show in WCW.
Some of the booking is getting more and more questionable and the
matches aren't as sharp as they've been in the past. The tag team
tournament is starting to take shape though so at least there's
something interesting going on. Well at least in theory. Let's get
to it.
We open with
a clip from the end of last week's show with Chuck Zito and Hogan
stalking David Flair. It turned out that they didn't do anything.
The
announcers do their opening chat about Flair vs. Hogan.
We see a clip
from Thunder where Arn Anderson called Ric to check on David.
Thankfully we can't hear Ric's voice.
Nitro Girls.
Diamond Dallas Page is shown watching from the entrance in case
Steiner shows up.
Disco comes
into the Wolfpack locker room to see Hall and Nash standing over a
fallen Arn Anderson. Disco stands over him as the Outsiders leave.
Hall says that's three down and two to go.
Opening
sequence.
We go to a
pool hall where a gorgeous blonde is talking to the camera. She saw
whoever is holding the camera and thought he looked good, so come get
in her limo for a ride.
Rey
Mysterio Jr. vs. Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is
a masked man who gets rave reviews whenever I see him mentioned. I
don't remember anything special out of him so it should be
interesting to see what he's got. Blitzkrieg takes him down into a
quickly broken chinlock before jumping to the top rope to moonsault
over Rey. A dropkick sends Rey to the floor and sets up an Asai
moonsault into a corkscrew. Back in and Rey catches a hurricanrana
in a powerbomb before getting two off a split legged moonsault.
Blitzkrieg
misses another corkscrew dive but catches Rey in a tilt-a-whirl
backbreaker for two. A standing moonsault gets two on Rey and he
misses a charge into the post to give Blitzkrieg an even bigger
advantage. They head outside with Rey dropkicking Blitzkrieg out of
the air to take over. Back in and Rey drapes him over the ropes and
nails a guillotine legdrop followed by a superplex for two. Off to a
headscissors on the mat before Rey gets two off a tilt-a-whirl
backbreaker of his own. There's a Bronco Buster and Blitzkreig
misses a corkscrew moonsault, setting up a top rope hurricanrana to
give Rey the pin.
Rating: C.
It had a bunch of high spots but Blitzkrieg did the same corkscrew
about three times and it was basically just flipping for the sake of
flipping. They look cool but the flip really doesn't add anything.
It doesn't make the match any better and it didn't make Blitzkrieg
live up to his hype. Mix it up a bit and things will get better.
Video
on Luger/Nash vs. Rey/Konnan.
Kanyon
goes to Raven's house where his mom asks Kanyon to keep an eye on
Raven. They sit on the
couch and Kanyon says Raven has to get better. Raven, looking
directly into the camera: “What a mark.” Raven says money can
buy happiness and they go into the garage where Raven has a yellow
Ferrari waiting on him.
They drive off with the engine reving.
Booker
T. vs. Fit Finlay
A
hiptoss puts Finlay down to start but Finlay comes back with a slam
and sits on Booker's chest. Finlay
staggers him with a jawbreaker and appears to low blow Booker on a
leapfrog attempt. An elbow to the chest keeps Booker in trouble but
he comes back with a spinning kick to the face. Booker gets sent
outside for an elbow to the back of the head and Finlay rams him into
the apron. Finlay slams him head first into the steps and we take a
break.
Back
with....Horace coming in to see Hollywood. The champ says he needs
help and Horace says he'll do whatever he needs. The Black and White
guys are tugging for position and Horace needs to lead the team.
Horace: “WHOA!” He's not allowed to tell anyone though for
reasons not exactly clear. Obviously none of the Black and White
members watch the show so this will be a well kept secret.
Now
we go to the back where Flair makes Bischoff a janitor. If
he quits, he's fired.
We
actually get back to the match now with Booker grabbing a sleeper but
getting rammed into the corner for a break. Finlay
drives him head first into the mat with a knee and we hit the
chinlock. That doesn't last
long as Booker comes back with a belly to back suplex and the ax
kick, side kick and missile dropkick for the pin.
Rating:
D+. The match was hard to stay
into when there was an eight minute break in the middle. Finlay
didn't do much here but he's just a jobber to the stars at this point
anyway. It's nice to see Booker getting more wins, but hit would be
nice to see him go somewhere instead of spinning his wheels like
this.
Raven
takes $20,000 out of the bank, half of it in one dollar bills.
They're going clothing shopping for Kanyon.
Jimmy
Hart tells Bischoff they need more toilet paper.
Hollywood
tells Brian Adams the same things he told Horace.
Gene
brings out Flair for a chat. Flair
says he had to walk the aisle tonight because he's the Nature Boy.
The only thing he hasn't done in this town is ride a barrel over the
falls. There goes the jacket and Flair talks about the Outsiders in
a high pitched voice. Tonight it's the Outsiders vs. Mongo/Flair.
As for SuperBrawl, Hogan has two weeks to keep living his dream.
Flair threatens to strip naked right now and promises to take Hogan
down in Oakland.
He
puts the Figure Four on the air and says we should get some great
wrestling tonight. Flair says Hall beat Benoit last week but gets no
shot because he's abusing his power. Hart has been faking a groin
injury so he needs to come out here and drop the belt right now.
Bret limps down to the ring
and Flair says he'll be wrestling at SuperBrawl or give up the title.
Hart says he's injured but Flair says he's doing it whether he wants
to or not. Actually let's just have Hart wrestle tonight against
Roddy Piper and the title is
on the line. Flair says the match with the Outsiders will be DOWN
THERE.
Bret
leaves and gets in the face of Will Sasso from MadTV.
The
still unnamed blonde promises not to bite too much and tells the
person behind the camera to come sit next to her.
Solid
video on the tag team tournament and
the great tag teams over the years.
Nitro
Girls with Page watching on
a monitor in the back.
Hollywood
tells Stevie Ray to take over the team. Is
everyone else watching a Mighty Mouse marathon? The
announcers haven't acknowledged any of these meetings yet.
Tag
Team Title Tournament: Brian Adams/Horace vs. Barry Windham/Curt
Hennig
Neither
team has lost yet. Windham
and Hennig come out to something that sounds a lot like a cover of
the Legion of Doom theme. It's
a brawl to start with Hennig taking over on Adams, only to get caught
in a gorilla press. Horace chops Barry on the floor before Brian
throws Hennig outside as well. All
four guys brawl on the floor and we take a break.
Back
with Bischoff having to find
aftershave for the luchadors. He can't understand their Spanish and
this really isn't funny.
We
go back to the match with Barry holding Horace in a Figure Four with
Hennig adding in some extra leverage. Off to Hennig for chops in the
corner and the necksnap but Horace kicks him in the face. Adams
comes in with a suplex for two but gets caught in a sleeper. The
fans are dead here because, amazingly enough, not many people are
interested in two midcard heel teams fighting
each other.
Everything
breaks down and the PefectPlex gets two on Brian with Horace making
the save. Vince comes out with the slap jack and Stevie Ray is
shaking his head in the aisle. Hennig is in trouble as Stevie takes
the slap jack from Vince, only to knock Adams out cold and give Curt
the pin.
Rating: D.
Again, who in the world thought this was a good idea? There's no one
for the fans to cheer for and the whole point of the match was an
argument between the NWO B Team. The match was watchable but I need
someone to care about to make up for it being dull stuff. I still
have no idea why this is a double elimination tournament.
The
Black and White argues post match.
The
Blonde is in a hotel and tells the guy he has nothing to be worried
about. They get in an elevator and she holds up a hotel key.
Video
on Goldberg vs. Bigelow.
Vince
gets his time with Hogan. Vince: “I'm the daddy!”
Gene
brings out Bigelow, who is
carrying some kind of paper,
for a chat. Bigelow says he
loves it when a plan comes together. This has been the idea all
along: to break down Goldberg by raiding arenas until he had Goldberg
right where he wanted him. Bigelow holds up the paper, which is an
article from USA Today about Goldberg going to Washington D.C. to
speak against animal fighting.
Goldberg
should have his mind on SuperBrawl and the Beast From the East. The
article says Goldberg hopes to have everyone in WCW adopt an animal
this year. Bigelow would be glad to put a leash on Goldberg's wife
and walk her around the block a few times. This brings out Goldberg
and the fight is on until
security breaks it up.
Nitro
Girls.
We
see Page meeting a woman from a TV show he'll be appearing on later
this week. The woman tries
to do a promo and it's painful.
Kenny
Kaos vs. Diamond Dallas Page
Tony
does on sale listings, including a Chris Jericho and the Nitro Girls
appearance at the Rupp Arena box office. Why did I never hear about
this? Page takes over to start and sends Kaos out to the floor.
Kenny is rammed into various things before they head back inside for
a discus lariat to send Kaos right back outside. A
belly to belly gets two for Page but Kaos snaps his throat across the
top rope. Kaos drops him with a springboard clothesline and chokes a
lot. We hit the chinlock for
a bit until Page fights up with two more discus lariats followed by
the middle rope Diamond Cutter for the pin.
Rating:
D+. Just a basic match here but
Kaos continues to get in some offense. It's not like it's going to
lead anywhere or anything as he's already reached the peak of his
career, but it's nice to see some lip service. The fact that his
reign as a champion is never mentioned sums up how much it meant
though.
Kanyon
and Raven go to Versace and we get a Kanyon fashion show, including
him changing in his underwear. Raven: “You're such a jabroni.”
After
a break and a montage of bars and clubs, Raven and Kanyon get back
home just before Raven's mom. They don't say anything about what
happened, but WCW has called and asked for Raven to come back to
work. He seems fine with the idea.
Ernest
Miller comes out for another open challenge. We cut to the Black and
White locker room where Adams tells Vince to go get him. The
Black and White laugh after Vince leaves.
We
see Vince going to the ring and telling Disco Inferno that Miller is
talking about his sister. Disco is too smart (there's one I didn't
think I'd get to type) this time though and tells Vince to do it
himself.
Vince
vs. Ernest Miller
Seriously.
Vince goes after Sonny Onoo
before the bell and Miller jumps him from the apron. Back in and
Miller kicks him a few times to send him back to the floor. Another
kick sends Vince into the crowd for some brawling. Back inside again
and Vince hits a jawbreaker but gets superkicked for the third time.
More kicks drop Vince and Miller heads up top, but Sonny gets dragged
to the apron which crotches Miller down. Vince grabs a rollup for
the pin.
Rating:
D-. Vince vs. Ernest Miller
just got four minutes on Nitro after a four minute intro. I like
that they're trying to do something with Miller and it's better than
he used to be, but at the end of the day, there isn't much they can
do that is going to make me care about Vince. If nothing else this
is bad because it gives him more to brag about when no one is in line
to see him at conventions.
Kimberly
is getting in her car when Scott Steiner shows up. Page is right
there to go after him but security holds Page back, allowing Steiner
to get in the car with her. They speed off and Steiner shoves her
out of the car onto the concrete. That's rather extreme. It's so
extreme that Kimberly keeps her face down on the concrete and is in a
full body outfit so you can't tell it was a stuntwoman.
After
a break, EMTs are tending to Kimberly. They get her in an ambulance
and Page leaves with her. Tony wants charges pressed against
Steiner.
We
get the same
clip of Bret on MadTV, though
this time it's extended to show that he was beating
up Jesse Ventura.
Larry
Zbyszko is doing his hair in the bathroom and yells at Bischoff over
the floor not being clean. Bischoff
finds some bleach and is way too happy about it.
US
Title: Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper
Bret
is defending and this is Piper's first televised match since
September. Piper slaps him in the face to start and does the ear
slap before hammering away in the corner. Bret
comes back with right hands and takes it to the floor but stops to
limp a bit. Back in and the
champion chokes a lot but Bret falls down, holding his groin. Piper
clearly didn't hit him so I think we've got some goldbricking. The
trainer comes in to check on Hart as Tony is screaming for Piper to
get on him.
Naturally
Bret is faking and takes Piper into the corner for a stomping and we
take a break. Back with Bret choking even more before punching Piper
out to the floor. Hart pulls Will Sasso over the barricade to choke
him, and despite Tony seeing him earlier and identifying the man as
Will Sasso from MadTV, Tony has no idea who he is.
The
distraction lets Piper get in a suplex for two back inside before
getting caught in the sleeper. Bret goes to the corner to escape and
the referee goes down. Piper is up first and Will Sasso is playing
cheerleader. Hart has a foreign object and knocks Piper out, but he
goes over to yell at Sasso, allowing Piper to get a rollup for the
pin and the title.
Rating: D.
This is a good example of why people were tuning out from WCW at this
point. I understand that Piper wasn't going to be a long term
champion, but was there NO ONE ELSE that they could put in this role?
No, it had to be Piper, who shows up and wins a title that so many
other people could benefit from holding. It's 1999 and I can't
imagine many people want to see Piper with a belt. But then again we
don't want to risk pushing someone new do we? That would just be
crazy.
The
Outsiders come out for their catchphrases and we go to a commercial.
The
Blonde brings the cameraman into her hotel room and has him sit down
on the bed while she goes to do something.
Outsiders
vs. Ric Flair/Steve McMichael
It's
a brawl to start and the Outsiders are knocked to the floor. Hall
and Flair get things going with Flair chopping him into the corner.
Scott comes back with some right hands in the corner to no effect but
Hall nails a clothesline to put both guys down. Flair
elbows him in the jaw and goes up, only to be slammed back down.
It's off to Nash but Ric is able to tag in Mongo, who stomps on
Nash's foot. Both Outsiders are slammed down but Nash kicks
McMichael in the face to take over.
Tony
brings up Sting again as Mongo gets double teamed in the corner.
Hall hits the fall away slam
for two before putting on the sleeper. Mongo jawbreaks his way to
freedom and the ice cold tag brings in Flair. Ric beats up Hall with
ease and a few knee crusher set up the Figure Four. The hold stays
on for a good while but we cut to Hogan knocking on the bathroom
door. Bischoff hands him the mop bucket that he poured the bleach
into earlier and says that this should work.
Hogan
leaves with the bucket and all of the backstage workers are out cold
on the floor. Back to the
arena and Hall is out of the hold without much damage. A shoulder
puts both he and Flair down as Hogan comes out with the bucket. He
throws the bleach in it at Flair but hits Mongo to blind him and the
match is thrown out.
Rating: D.
This was Mongo's final match and thank goodness for that. The guy
dragged down a match between three guys that shouldn't have their
stuff dragged down like this. The fans did not care about him when
he was in there and after two and a half years, there's really no
excuse for him to not get any better at all.
Hogan
and the Outsiders go after Flair but Ric fights them off until
Goldberg makes the save. Bigelow comes in but is easily dispatched
to end the show.
Overall
Rating: D+. You could feel
things starting to change on this show. Between the car thing with
Steiner and the bleach in Mongo's eyes, things were getting a bit
more sinister at this time. The Blonde is an interesting idea as
there's a mystery about who sent her and who she's talking to, but
we'll get to that later.
The
wrestling on this show was really bad. There are a few bright spots
like Rey's match, but the rest of the show felt like it was there for
the stories and the matches were bridging the gaps. That can work
when the stories are good, but that's not the case here for the most
part, especially when the matches are this dull. Not a good show,
but SuperBrawl is looking like a chance for some serious revenge.
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 each at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
Flash has some major mental baggage especially Daddy Issues and the way he treated people in the past. Make sense that he'd be affected by the Penance Stare. Eddie Brock was a psychopath that didn't give a flying fuck about anything(most of the time) so makes sense it wouldn't work on him.
ReplyDeleteTho we're applying logic to comics, which is like applying logic to wrestling. Don't bother, you'll just wind up with a headache and regrets.
They fired Vickie twice kinda. Sorta. They let her be on Smackdown, doing stuff. Then, one week, declared she was "fired", then she came back next week and booked a match on RAW and was fired again. That, alone, made me want to punch a baby.
ReplyDeleteI was at this show! ONLY thing I remember is the opener. Back in 1999 Blitzkrieg was amazing, in 2014 not so much, just the same flippy-floppy stuff I've seen in a hundred indy matches over the last decade. In that respect, I guess he was ahead of his time. And then he retired a few months after this...
ReplyDeleteSuperBrawl, much like Starrcade '97, was a huge letdown. It was WCW's last hope to turn things around.
ReplyDeletePaul Heyman. He told you all along.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I loved about ECW, there's maybe a dozen or matches in the entire history of the company that didn't end in either a pin or submission. Sure, they'rd often be matches where about 15 guys would interfere, but at least it would end decisively, even if the only decisive thing was "I have more friends than you do".
ReplyDeleteHaving my Grandparents around, having my friends around, the ability to have no responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteGiven his track record with not delivering payoffs (in both senses of the term) while running ECW, you can understand why his word isn't worth much to me.
ReplyDeleteI wish they had let Nohh-var/Marvel Boy/Protector become the Captain Marvel or simply bring the original back.
ReplyDeleteThe bi with Ant-Man is WAY confusing.
I remember this Nitro. I was a teenager and took it for granted.
ReplyDeleteAny idea why Paige isn't on the divas list? She's had 19 TV matches (according to profightdb)
ReplyDeleteSecret Avengers really falls into 2 categories. Great stuff in the brubaker and Ellis runs, skippable nothing from everybody else.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the Italian guy's purpose, anyway? He just sort of showed up with Hogan one week, and I don't remember him doing anything.
ReplyDeleteCarol Danvers as Captain Marvel is awesome. Quality book.
ReplyDeleteWell, he did say that he lied every day of his stinking life to Vince that one time.
ReplyDeleteThis has never been more of an issue than it has been the past couple months. It felt like we were seeing Cesaro vs. RVD, Del Rio vs. Ziggler, Sheamus vs. Barrett, Sin Cara vs. Bo Dallas, Los Matadores vs. 3MB, Paige vs. Alicia Fox, and Goldust/Cody vs. Rybaxel every single show for weeks on end. Yet they'd have all these guys sitting on the sidelines.
ReplyDeleteProbably jobbed a lot of matches to Bryan and/or Cena on house shows.
ReplyDeleteAh you missed out... the Boulevard was the shit as a teenager
ReplyDeleteBlitzkrieg was just a cool fresh face, nothing more/less. Sloppy but fun. Think he lasted all of 3 months.
ReplyDeleteWCW would hit a home run with Spring Stampede '99 (the best WCW/WWF PPV since SummerSlam '98) so there was still positive vibes floating around. Summer '99 had a lot of garbage but still some good workers.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember, was the blonde Torrie Wilson or Stacy Keibler?
ReplyDeleteChuck Zito was a former Hell's Angels leader. After the "Fingerpoke of Doom" Goldberg brought out the Atlanta Falcons as "back up" after Nitro went off the air. This was reference on TV. So Hogan and the nWo brought out the Hell's Angels for an episode to "one up" him, I believe. Zito stuck around for another cameo. Maybe the blonde seducing David (Torrie Wilson) was one of their biker sluts but I think in kayfabe it's later said that Nash was responsible for finding her.
ReplyDeleteTorrie, but her name at the start is "Mrs. Robinson" (ala the Graduate) for a few weeks, IIRC.
ReplyDeleteThis is TV matches when millions see you instead of 5,000.
ReplyDeleteI think her name was also "Samantha" for a short time, for some reason. I'm guessing this was before they split her from David Flair. *SPOILER*
ReplyDeleteOne great thing about being an adult: the ability to be able to do that, and wouldn't trade it for all the things I miss as a kid.
ReplyDeleteWish I had appreciated the Monday night wars more.
ReplyDeleteI've seen very little of Protector (Besides this I've seen him in the Dark Avengers trade where he took the Captain Marvel name and then promptly disappeared, and the Fear Itself crossover trade) but from what I've seen there doesn't seem to be much to the character. He's an alien outsider on Earth who uses alien tech to fight. k
ReplyDeleteWhereas I really like the idea of Carol assuming the mantle. I think it fits a better on her than any of the other CMs (and overall I like Monica Rambeau and Legacy probably more than Ms. Marvel but Monica has no connection to the original CM while Legacy never seemed to accomplish anything that would make him worthy of switching to his father's name.) Carol on the other hand got her start in the original's book and her powers from him. Besides being a hero who can actually carry a solo title, the character feels like she has earned the right to the name because she's had serious setbacks over the years (mind-wiped power loss, rape, alcoholism) and yet since Civil War the writers have worked really hard to bring her back to being a top tier hero.
Leading to PPV... you either get repetitive competitive matches or squashes. Pick one. It's not 1987, I'll take *** 1/2 free TV matches.
ReplyDeleteTorrie Wilson...and in 1999, she was probably the finest woman alive.
ReplyDeleteTJ...WWE released Emma
ReplyDeleteCamera phones are one of those things where it seemed like a good idea at the time, but overall they've done more harm than good to society.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm not at all innocent here. Other night I saw a huge fight break out. Do I say something, or just get the hell out of there, or use said camera phone to call the cops maybe? Hell no, I try to record that shit so I can upload it on World Star Hip-Hop or something. Too bad it was dark and my phone sucks, video was just a grainy blurry mess.
REmmaleased
ReplyDeleteWhy yes. Yes I do.
ReplyDeleteWe all knew that was Emmanent.
ReplyDeletePutting him in the match makes no sense but him losing in title matches won't be a big deal, as long as he's not losing cleanly. Austin had plenty of title shots before winning WM14. Reigns will be fine.
ReplyDeleteThe Diesel formula is flawed because there was no chase. By the time he figured out the character he was already a failure as champ
Ah, misread it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he lost a lot of lame DQ/non-finishes.
I got stuck listening to the country top 30 countdown, and I swear every song sounded exactly alike. I'll take it over any of this new hip-hop shit all day long though. Rap today has become like cookie-monster metal to me, just gives me a headache.
ReplyDeleteI only read the AvsXM issues when they came out. Remender is one of my favorite writers right now but I have no desire to read anymore of his SA stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy hare-brained theory is that Vince saw Cena vs. Orton penciled in, said to himself "we can do better that THAT", and added Kane. Then HHH saw that, muttered something to himself about senility under his breath, and added Reigns to try and salvage things. He then had to convince VKM that it was his idea all along.
ReplyDeleteThat's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
What about Batista?
ReplyDeleteGuardians Of The Galaxy comes out August.1st
Any chance of him coming back early to help promote the film? If not then surely he'll be ready come September. How do you figure he'll factor into any of this? 1-1 feud with Roman Reigns for a fall program?
They are Rybacking Reigns
ReplyDeleteThat's good that Danvers has found a vehicle that has worked. Marvel never gave up on her and she does seem interesting. I will keep an eye out for that trade.
ReplyDeleteI did have a lot of her post Civil War series and Machine Man was AWESOME in it!