Monday Nitro #195
Date: July 5, 1999
Location: Georgia Dome,
Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 25,338
Commentators: Tony
Schiavone, Bobby Heenan
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're
back in WCW's home town now for the go home show for Bash at the
Beach. At the moment there are only a few matches announced for
Sunday but that's better than we've been getting lately. The main
story continues to be Nash stealing Gorgeous George and Savage being
a psycho. Well that and the youth movement being crushed like a bug.
Let's get to it.
Opening recap of last
week's events and Savage accidentally taking Torrie back instead of
George on Thunder.
The announcers do their
welcome.
Juventud Guerrera
vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
There's
a raised logo, presumably for Megadeth later or some stupid WCW
thing, on the ramp and Chavo falls down on his way to the ring. Nice
job WCW. Juvy mocks Chavo's history with Pepe to start and gets the
fans fired up. A shoulder drops Chavo and Juvy gives us a pelvic
thrust. Juvy hammers away in the corner but gets dropped throat
first across the ropes. Chavo follows up but takes a Stunner to put
him across the ropes as well.
An
early Juvy Driver attempt sends Chavo bailing as the announcers hype
up Megadeth and Bret's appearance for the third time already. On the
floor now with Chavo taking over off a dropkick. Back in and we get
the Gory Stretch into a Gory Bomb but Chavo drops an elbow instead of
covering.
Guerrero goes up for
the “I'm going to jump straight down so I can land on your raised
boots” spot before they go into a pinfall reversal sequence, capped
off by Juvy scoring a German suplex for two. A slam looks to set up
the 450 but Chavo pops up to crotch him. Something like a sitout
brainbuster plants Juvy but Sid and Savage come in for the DQ.
Rating:
C.
The match was fun while it lasted but Sid and Savage are almost a
guarantee to bust up matches like this on Nitro anymore. Chavo is
still one of the best cruiserweights without being over the top with
his high flying. Juvy is starting to be insane and it works well for
him when he gets it right.
Sid,
wearing the World Title belt, powerbombs Juvy to set up the big
elbow. The big man grabs the mic and says they want George back and
won't be held responsible for their actions. Nash and Torrie
(looking as good as she ever has in WCW, which covers a lot of
ground) pop up on screen. Kevin wants his belt back and thinks he
should just beat up Sid tonight, but he's been worn out this week.
They banter a bit until George comes in wearing a Nash shirt, asking
if she just heard Randy.
DJ
Ran.
Gene
brings out Ric Flair who comes out with his son. The boss takes the
mic and says that since Scott Steiner has been running around the
world, it's time we have a new US Champion. That new champion will
be....David Flair, due to him beating Nash by countout last week.
Little Naitch comes out with a bunch of women who are all over the
new champ. This brings out Buff Bagwell as balloons fall from the
ceiling. Short version: Bagwell vs. Flair for the title tonight.
TV
Title: Rick Steiner vs. Vampiro
Rick
yells about beating Van Hammer this coming Sunday. The champ hammers
on Vampiro like the mindless brawler he is before hitting a hard
German suplex. Vampiro's kicks go nowhere as he gets dropped with a
Steiner Line. The Steiner Bulldog sets up that weird arm hold Rick
has been using to end this quick.
Lenny
and Lodi come through some doors with Lodi giving Lenny new tights.
Lenny isn't sure that they'll fit but Lodi says he knows ever inch of
him. The doors close to reveal the word “closet”. GET IT?
Video on Bret Hart
leaving due to Owen passing away. The last shot is of an empty ring.
Here's
Bret for his first public comments in months. He's been told he has
all the time he wants so he's going to try not to rush. Bret thanks
the wrestling fans on behalf of the entire Hart Family for all the
well wishes they received. WCW has given him a chance to collect
himself and he appreciates that. Owen wasn't your average wrestler
and he was a great human being. Bret doesn't think there's anyone
that can say a bad thing about him. They were the closest of all his
brothers and never had a single argument.
Eric
Bischoff has asked him what he wants to do but Bret isn't sure where
he wants to go with his life. The Hart Family has lived and died for
wrestling and there really isn't much left for him to accomplish.
All these great athletes are retiring in 1999 and they all seem so
happy. He's afraid that his career will end in a tragedy but he just
doesn't know. Bret thanks all of his fans everywhere and all of the
wrestlers he's worked with over the years. He hopes he wasn't too
stiff and that's about it.
Eddie
Guerrero comes up to Doug Dillinger and shouts in Spanish. After
switching to English, he says someone has stolen his wallet. It was
a masked wrestler and Eddie wants them all lined up so he can pick
out the culprit. I don't see this ending well.
DJ Ran.
The Cat vs. Jerry
Flynn
This
is a kickboxing match because WCW is a stupid promotion. We have a
round system with Round 1 consisting of a lot of circling and some
light kicks. The fans boo this out of the building as the round ends
with nothing to talk about. Round 2 starts with Cat going down to
the mat and receiving a warning. Flynn tries a big kick and falls
flat on his back because this is a joke. Back up and Cat hits some
kicks to the ribs to knock Jerry down before a big shot to the head
results in a DQ for hitting a downed opponent. Seriously, that's the
whole thing.
Flynn
tackles Cat and they brawl some more. This was one of the dumbest
things I've ever had to sit through.
Lodi
vs. Van Hammer
Hammer jumps him from
the start and knocks Lodi all over the place. Some jumping
clotheslines and a big boot send Lodi out to the floor, where he
steals Heenan's water. Lodi is sent into the barricade but Lenny low
bridges Hammer down to change things up a bit. Back in and Lodi
actually busts out a hurricanrana, only to try again and get dropped
onto the top rop. A superplex brings Lenny in and the cobra clutch
slam ends Lodi. Total squash for the sake of unfunny comedy.
Dillinger tries to get
all of the luchadors together for a show up but there are some
communication barriers. Cops come in and clear things up as this is
going to continue.
Gene brings out Roddy
Piper because this show hasn't gone low enough yet. Roddy agrees
that rap is crap but wants to talk to Sting. Here's a clearly fake
Sting who is about an inch taller than Okerlund. Piper asks him
about working with Savage but Fake Sting shakes his head no. Now
Piper wants to see his real face but gets another no, earning Fake
Sting a neckbreaker. Piper takes the mask off and we barely see the
guy's face.
Moving
on to Sunday, Piper wants a boxing match against Buff Bagwell. Why a
boxing match you ask? Well we really don't get a reason for that but
we've had bad kickboxing so why not bad regular boxing? If that's
not enough, JJ Dillon brings in Judge Mills Lane (a former TV judge
and big time boxing referee) to referee Sunday's fight “In
California in Florida!” Lane's words, not mine. I know this
sounds stupid, but it's not like Piper has wrestled a match in years
anyway so why not just let him do nothing but punch?
Nitro Girls.
DJ Ran.
Rey Mysterio
Jr./Konnan vs. Steven Regal/Fit Finlay
You
know, for all the bad things that WCW did in 1999, they actually
built up a nice tag division. Mysterio clarifies that HOOTY HOO is
the call of the soldier. Apparently Regal and Finlay don't approve
of the soldiers and want to beat some peace into the rappers. Regal
powerbombs Rey and catapults him into a clothesline from Finlay.
There's the rolling fireman's carry as Rey is in early trouble.
The Europeans crank on
a Mysterio leg each but the referee makes them break it up. Mysterio
finally avoids a charge in the corner and makes the hot tag to Konnan
to clean some house. Everything breaks down as Konnan does the
usual, including throwing Rey into a Bronco Buster on Regal. Not
that it matters as the West Texas Rednecks come in for the DQ.
Rating:
D+.
Finlay and Regal continue to work very well as foreign villains and
they just look like they enjoy hurting people. The match was a way
to have the Rednecks jump the soldiers and set up a match on Sunday.
Who will be in that match hasn't been announced yet but there are
some combinations that could make for an interesting match.
US
Title: David Flair vs. Buff Bagwell
David is defending in
an angle that actually kind of works. Yeah he's in over his head,
but WCW acknowledging that he's in over his head makes this a lot
easier to sit through. Back when Erik Watts was thrown in over his
head, they had to pretend he was good and it made things feel so
stupid. At least here it's making Ric look evil and corrupt and
being played as an angle instead of reality.
Bagwell hammers away to
start as you would expect, including planting David with a suplex.
The champ finally hits a quick low blow to take over, only to run
into an elbow and take the Blockbuster. Buff covers but Charles
Robinson's arm gives out. There's a Figure Four on David but Ric and
Arn come in. Buff beats them up too and puts the hold back on while
small packaging Ric at the same time. Dean Malenko and Asya come in
as well as this whole thing is a mess. Roddy runs out and nails Buff
with something to give David the pin. Total mess but you had to
expect that.
Time
for Eddie to interrogate the luchadors. We have La Parka, Ciclope,
Psychosis, Villano IV, a guy I don't recognize, and Blitzkrieg.
Everyone has to take their mask off but La Parka and Ciclope's faces
scare Eddie. He thinks Psychosis is a good looking guy. The guy I
didn't recognize is Cheetah Kid and apparently is Prince Iaukea under
the mask. Blitzkrieg isn't Hispanic and no one is happy with him.
I'm assuming we'll get more on this later.
The
TV feed messes up and we have Hak and Chastity on a ladder. Hak was
born in 1963 and started choking his doctor. He's had to fight all
his life and it's all he knows how to do. Now he's in WCW to get
paid to fight. Hak lists off all the men he's hurt and thinks there
should be a junkyard hardcore invitational on Sunday because we can't
have hardcore matches in the arena anymore.
The
rednecks come out and asks how many people here are good old boys,
rednecks and people that just hate rap. They plays the song and
that's it.
Video on Savage and
company.
Jersey Triad vs.
Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko/Perry Saturn
Benoit
runs Kanyon over with a shoulder and snaps off the Rolling Germans
before we go to an early break. Back with Saturn getting triple
teamed but ducking a charging Page, sending Kanyon into his partner
with a clothesline. Off to Benoit who cleans house with clotheslines
and a dropkick for Bigelow. He heads up but Page crotches him down
and stomps away in the corner before tagging out to Kanyon. A
slingshot elbow gets two on Benoit and it's back to Bigelow for a
bearhug.
Benoit actually climbs
up Bigelow into a sunset flip and avoids the big sitdown splash. A
double tag brings in Saturn and Kanyon with Perry cleaning house as
everything breaks down. Malenko tombstones Kanyon and avoids
Bigelow's top rope headbutt, setting up a top rope Saturn splash to
Bigelow, followed by the Swan Dive for the pin.
Rating:
C+.
It didn't have a ton of time but you knew these guys were going to
have a good match if they were given more than eight seconds. They
had to give the small guys a win to set up their Tag Team Title match
on Sunday, even though I don't think Malenko has anything for the pay
per view.
And
now, Megadeth performs Crush Em live. After five minutes of barely
understandable lyrics, the band is booed out of the arena. The
lights go out and Goldberg's voice says I'M BACK! We see his
silhouette and go to a commercial. I'll give Megadeth's performance
this though: at least their drummer was making contact, unlike Barry
Windham earlier.
WCW World Title: Sid
vs. Kevin Nash
Nash
is defending of course but Sid has the belt itself. Before the bell,
Nash tells Savage to get rid of the girls if he ever wants to see
Gorgeous George again. So it's Nash vs. Sid for that In Your House
main event the world was waiting for. They head into the corner for
some elbows to the challenger's jaw followed by a running
clothesline. Sid bails to the floor but Savage runs in after about a
minute. The referee doesn't ring a bell though, leaving Nash to
fight off both guys. Sid decks the referee to officially throw the
thing out.
Nash fights them off
until Fake Sting comes out to beat him down. Cue the real Sting for
the real save but Nash powerbombs him, thinking it's the Sting that
attacked him. The champ goes up the aisle and says what's left of
George is in his dressing room. Savage runs to the back and finds
Torrie with George.
He gets in George's
face, demanding to know if he touched her. Savage turns to Torrie
and smacks her in the face. A screaming Torrie points out that
George is wearing a Nash shirt so Savage rips it off her and throws
her into a hallway (George: “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS???”) as the
camera cuts off REALLY fast to end the show. I know I say a lot of
stuff on these shows are horrible, but this was bordering on hard to
sit through.
Overall
Rating: D.
Leaving out the disturbing ending, this was a horrible show. We've
reached the point where WCW has gone from boring to stupid with stuff
like Mills Lane refereeing a boxing match between Bagwell and Piper,
two different music performances, Lenny and Lodi beating their story
into your head and what felt like a comedy sketch about kickboxing.
They're on the verge of running scared at this point, but somehow
this is easier to sit through than the shows from a month and a half
ago.
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