Andrew Lutzke
Nitro
The announcers put over the big happenings last week with the World title vacated and put up for grabs in the 60 man World War 3 Battle Royal. This segues right into a vignette of Hulk Hogan playing dress up in a graveyard set. He looks absolutely ridiculous. He brings out a sword and promises Macho Man will behead Meng tonight on Nitro. Hulkamania will live forever despite the darkness trying to overtake it. Sting is on the shit list for chumming it up with Lex Luger last week. This wrestlecrap needs to be shared:
Randy Savage vs. Meng
Savage attacks Meng from the audience and sends him to the floor where he posts Meng and sends him into the railing several times. He slams Meng in the ring and teases going for the elbow but Sullivan distracts Macho so Savage dumps The Taskmaster to the floor. Macho tries a double axehandle on Meng but eats a shot to the gut. Meng hacks away at Savage, tearing open his shirt and hitting a bounty of chops. Savage is mauled in the corner for several minutes, but Meng misses a diving head butt and then Savage sends him into Jimmy Hart’s mega phone and drops the big elbow for the pin! The Shark charges in and drops Savage and then Lex Luger runs in and attacks Savage’s already injured arm. Several times the limb is driven into the ring post. We abruptly cut to commercial. Good segment.
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Chris Benoit
Chris opens up with chops but is quickly caught by Sasaki’s array of power moves. Benoit is powerslammed and has his face driven into the mat with a bulldog like move. Sasaki locks in a kneeling chinlock. They seemed to be having some communication issues with some spots. Benoit escapes 2 suplex attempts and drops Kensuke with 2 German suplexes of his own, and then switches to a full nelson suplex into the bridge for a 3 count! Solid match and I honestly had no idea who would win. Bischoff then shocks me by casually mentioning that Benoit is now a member of the Four Horsemen. That doesn’t warrant a recap package??? I looked it up during the commercial and Benoit was apparently named as the new Horsemen during a WCW Saturday Night interview and Ric Flair was not even a part of the segment. SMH.
Johnny B. Badd vs. Eddy Guerrero
The men trade arm locks and headlocks until Badd catches him with a tilt a whirl suplex. A 2nd attempt ends with Eddy getting a head scissors take down. Guerrero eats an elbow in the follow up charge and absorbs a flying leg drop. Eddy with a frankensteiner. Guerrero is shoved off the top rope and they trade roll ups on the mat. Eddy misses another charge and splats on the floor, so Badd flips over the top rope on top of him. Badd misses the flying splash that followed that. They fight over a German suplex that ends in another roll up battle. Eddy tries 2 more cradles but can’t finish Badd. Badd starts to use his boxing skills out of desperation…then lets Eddy recover because he feels bad. Eddy pounces on him with punches and things break down into a slug fest. Eddy hits a mini senton and tries a tombstone but its reversed into a tombstone for Badd. Eddy hits a tornado DDT for a near fall. They collide on a dual flying crossbody attempt. They slug away as the 10 minute time limit expires. They start shoving but end up shaking hands. Tremendously fun match!
Jimmy Hart, Kevin Sullivan and The Giant promo: Hart says his only regret with turning on Hogan is he has 100 Hulk Hogan jackets lying around at home. The Giant will end Hulkamania – this comment sends Sullivan into convulsions on the mat.
Sting vs. Dean Malenko
Malenko gets a big chance here, although this pretty much shows how small Dean is compared to the “big boys”. Mongo buries Dean’s size. Sting no sells a shoulder block and slams Dean. Dean starts to work over Sting’s knee to balance things out. Sting is knee barred. Sting starts to power up, so Dean drop kicks Sting’s knee. Another knee lock keeps Sting grounded. Dean hits a big German suplex for 2. He misses a follow up drop kick but Sting misses a Stinger Splash. Dean tries a Texas Cloverleaf but Sting rolls him up for the pin. Good to see Sting give Malenko some rub here. Solid match.
Sting promo: Sting has nothing to hide. Hogan needs to remember Sting is the big dog in WCW. Next week Hogan vs. Sting to settle the grudge.
RAW
HOG vs. HHH
HHH sprays his perfume at HOG, so HOG pours slop over his head and chases HHH. HHH takes a few pratfalls and runs away. No match. Angle makes sense at least.
“The Federal Government may shut down tomorrow so Bill Clinton better worry about being slopped too.” Oh Vince…He’s hyping “Bill Clinton” more than some of the matches!
Ahmed Johnson vs. Jake Steele
Ahmed’s first RAW match. He seems over already – slamming Yoko for a debut will do that. Jobber gets token offense before he is squashed and pinned with the Pearl River Plunge. Ahmed grunts out an interview after the squash.
Diesel and Bret have a via satellite face to face interview. Bret complains about being screwed at Survivor Series…94….Nash admits Shawn and Bret have been his two toughest challenges. Bret thinks Nash is weak against technical wrestlers and Bret plans on making it a long match to wear Nash out. This was played totally straight and the men didn’t even raise their voices. I’m not sure that was the most effective hard sell possible for the PPV in six days.
Vince McMahon summons the spirit of the Undertaker after Jerry Lawler cheats to win at their Karate Fighters tournament match.
Roy Raymond vs. Mabel
Just a squash to put over the Undertaker returning in 6 days at Survivor Series.
Razor Ramon vs. Sid Vicious (Special Ref 1-2-3 Kid)
They spoiled the ending of this on the syndication shows by showing the Kid turning on Razor. This was during a brief period when the WWF showed highlights of their pre-taped matches, perhaps in an effort to win over viewers that something would happen that was worth watching. Even as an 11 year old I found the spoiler off putting. They mention house show incidents of Kid and Razor fighting, along with the past weekend’s Superstars where they lost another tag title match to the Smoking Gunns because Razor saved the Kid too many times. The IC title is not on the line because Gorilla Monsoon thinks The Kid may seek revenge on Razor – then why make him the ref?
Sid controls early on and they make sure to have Sid and The Kid have words several times. Sid chokeslams Razor and poses. Sid clubs away and totally controls for the first five minutes. Razor gets a kick in to Sid’s face but goes for the Razor’s Edge right away and is back dropped to the floor for his efforts. Commercial break and Razor is still on the ground. Dean Douglas comes down and attacks his Survivor Series partner Razor. Sid then joins them on the floor and drops Razor face first on the mat’s edge. Back in Sid locks on a very lazy camel clutch and Razor lifts him up unto his shoulder and dumps him. Sid runs into a boot and is bulldogged. Another Razor’s Edge is attempted but Kid yanks Sid down, which leads to a Sid powerbomb and a (fast) pin. Kid then walks off with Sid and DiBiase.
Dean Douglas, Yoko and Owen are gloating in the back until Razor storms through looking for the Kid – Razor chases Dean instead. I have to question your biggest angle at a PPV go home show being for a match that won’t even be taking place at the PPV.
Final thoughts:
WCW put on several awesome matches, the WWF had mostly squashes. WWF had a calm one on one interview segment to set up their big PPV main event, Nitro had Hulk Hogan running around cosplaying as the Cryptkeeper. Nitro wins in a massive landslide!
