Today in Wrestling History (1/25/1997): NWO Souled Out

My goal as of late has been to watch as much good wrestling as possible. And I want to emphasize the word “good”. I have subscriptions to NJPW World and NWA Classics. I have the WWE Network and focus on older footage. YouTube has been one of my best friends lately for hard to find footage. Who needs horrible episodes of Raw with all this as your disposal?

Therein lies the problem with articles like this. With the nature of doing a Today in Wrestling History column, some weeks give me plenty of great choices. Other weeks, like this, the options are slim. So in attempting to do a historic show of some sort, I sometimes have to watch things that are considered historically bad.

I’ve only watched today’s show once and remember not liking it, and most remember this as garbage. God, I hope this is better than I remember it.

The story so far… It can be argued that the Monday Night War didn’t really get started until the formation of the New World Order. Scott Hall defected from the World Wrestling Federation to World Championship Wrestling in May of 1996, with Kevin Nash following in June. When Hulk Hogan finally turned heel at Bash at the Beach in July, the biggest shots in the war to that point were fired. Suddenly, WCW was edgy and cool and the number one game in town as far as total viewers went, while the WWF was starting to slide into second place.

With the success of the NWO, plans were in place even back then to making the NWO its own brand, complete with its own TV and house shows, as well as its own pay-per-view events. With that in mind, a special NWO-centric pay-per-view was created featuring the top stars of the NWO against the top stars of WCW. There was a huge amount of interest in this event as many thought it would revolutionize the industry.

So let’s join Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the Way Back Machine and travel back to 19 years ago today. January 25, 1997. The New World Order presents “Souled Out”. I actually do love the play on words.

January 25, 1997 – nWo Souled Out airing live on PPV from Cedar Rapids, Iowa

The show starts with black and white footage of the NWO arriving in a motorcade. It looks like some of them are riding on the back of garbage trucks, which I hope isn’t foreshadowing the quality of this show. Virgil tries to sell some 8x10s to the boys. OK, not really, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now we have a cold opening that looks like a propaganda film. This is actually pretty cool.

We go live inside the arena, where Eric Bischoff is on the stage behind a podium. He introduces the three original members of the NWO who appear on the jumbo screens to introduce the announce team of Bischoff and Ted DiBiase.

We are now about seven minutes into the show and the crowd is already booing the hell out of this. Nobody has even gotten to the ring yet.

One fall: Chris “I should have stayed in hockey” Jericho vs. Masa “My Hero” Chono

That is how the ring announcer, who is not in the ring and might as well be a disembodied voice, introduces the participants. This match has some potential. Nick Patrick is the referee, wearing an NWO hat and T-shirt. No conflict of interest here at all. A lock up ends in a stalemate, Patrick warns Jericho about a hair pull, and the crowd immediately deflates. One kick by Chono and he dumps Jericho to the floor as we cut to WCW representatives, including Sherri Martel, Harlem Heat and Brian Knobs, make their way into the arena through the crowd. Bischoff makes a crack about not needing to give away PPV tickets at a 7-11 since the Royal Rumble the weekend before needed to. Big difference between the Alamodome and Cedar f’n Rapids though. Jericho dives onto Chono on the floor, and Bischoff actually puts the move over, but he misses a charge into the ringpost and Chono takes control. USA chant and Bischoff says “Good, we all know where we’re from.” Jericho is from Canada, so that was pretty stupid. Chono goes for an STF but Jericho keeps his head down to keep from getting locked in. “This is one of the questions in the beauty contest later. What country are you from?” Jericho with a German suplex, Patrick with an incredibly slow count, and Bischoff calls it a fast count. A clothesline gets the same treatment. Chono with an inverted atomic drop, and to this day I’m not sure how that’s legal when a low blow is an automatic DQ. Chono leaves the ring and gets a table because why not? Chono tries to suplex Jericho onto the table but Jericho reverses it. Missile dropkick by Jericho, and another slow count allows Chono to reach the ropes. Release fisherman suplex, then a Lionsault that jams Jericho’s knee, so this time the 2 count is believable. Jericho goes up top, but Chono stops it and shoves Jericho off the rope through the table. Yazuka kick, and Chono gets the pin at 11:08. This was highly disappointing.

Let’s look at some the lovely middle aged women who will attempt to become Miss NWO later tonight. We even see some of the letters (and pictures) that were sent in from people who actually wanted to do this. Bischoff basically says these women had to pay their own travel and lodging to take part. Jeff Katz then introduces the Q&A portion of the Miss NWO competition. No, none of the women were asked what country they’re from. This bombed.

Mexican Death Match: Hugh Morrus (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Big Bubba

Bischoff points out the WCW representatives don’t have music. I assume Bubba was replacing Konnan here but I don’t care enough to find out why. Morrus is dressed like Laugh Track Dudley. Patrick is the referee again, apparently because he’s the only NWO referee. Bubba gets shoved into the ropes which finally draws a reaction. Patrick yells at Hart forever. They had the cameras on it for 30 seconds. Clothesline by Morrus, and Bubba does a face bump as he goes over the top. Bubba’s trying, anyway. Bubba grabs a chain that was in his jacket and hits Morrus with it. Morrus eventually gets the chain and hits Bubba with it, then hits the No Laughing Matter moonsault. Apparently this is last man standing rules (it was never explained) and Patrick takes what feels like a year to count to 7. Morrus uses another foreign object and Bischoff says “we will not break rules” and I am officially done with this show as even playing a heel announcer, this is a fucking death match so there are no rules. Eventually they go to the floor and brawl up by the stage, which has a bunch of steps for some reason. Morrus misses No Laughing Matter off the steps, then Bubba RUNS MORRUS OVER WITH A MOTORCYCLE to win following a much faster 10 count at 9:03. I like the effort they put in but this gimmick is old already and there’s still over two hours left in this show.

One fall: Jeff Jarrett vs. M. Wallstreet

Yes, Nick Patrick is the only referee on the show tonight, which Bischoff explains here. Even five years before this I would have been stoked for this match. Early on, Jarrett pushes Wallstreet into a corner on a lock up and balls a fist, and Patrick grabs his arm to prevent the punch. Jarrett goes for a pin off a flying bodypress and gets a slow count of 2, and if we needed to hammer home biased referee Patrick any further, we immediately get a Wallstreet roll up for a much faster count of 2. Even Bischoff and DiBiase ignore the match to discuss the ladder match coming up later tonight. As the match goes on, Wallstreet is in control and Debra McMichael is shown in the crowd looking worried. They trade sleepers and Patrick rules Jarrett’s is a chokehold and makes him break the hold. Might as well have just had Patrick disqualify everybody during instructions and save us the trouble outside of the Mexican Death Match and the Ladder Match since those matches don’t have rules to start with. Jarrett finally locks in a figure-four and Patrick helps Wallstreet get to the ropes. Wallstreet gets an abdominal stretch, and Debra tells husband Steve McMichael to hit Wallstreet with a Halliburton and intimidate Patrick to finally counting the mercy pin at 9:37.

We cut to Jeff Katz continuing the Miss NWO competition, and when he asks the fans what they think of the women, there is dead silence.

One fall: Scotty Riggs vs. Buff Bagwell

The American Males explode! So on the November 25 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Bischoff told all “WCW contracted talent” that they had 30 days to convert their WCW contracts into NWO contracts or they’d officially be the enemy of the NWO. It took Bagwell all of about 30 seconds to turn on Riggs and leave WCW. So this is the big grudge match that should be a big deal since there were former WCW World Tag Team Champions but isn’t a big deal because Bagwell was the only one of the two who ever got remotely over. This is the beginning of the Buff character, and he intentionally struggles to get his vest off to put over how big his arms are. Riggs attacks from behind to start before we get more of the same from the rest of the show. There’s some weird camera that’s being held on a stick almost like it’s a boom mic, and it almost always shakes and gives me a headache. Riggs hiptosses Bagwell over the top rope, which was at the time a disqualification in WCW, and Patrick actually lets the match continue. That’s the first break a WCW guy has gotten the entire show. Bagwell eventually takes control, clotheslining Riggs off the apron into the railing. Riggs crawls into the ring as the ring announcers shouts “loser” over the PA. The crowd shouts “Let’s go Buff” which at least proves there are more than three people still awake at this point. In a funny spot, Buff grabs a nearly unconscious Riggs’ arms and has him do the American Males arm clap. Riggs takes Bagwell down with a sunset flip by pulling down the tights and exposing Bagwell’s ass, and Patrick (correctly) refuses to count. Riggs eventually makes an actual comeback. Tornado DDT, two dropkicks, but both men get a high cross body with Bagwell landing on top for two. Backslide by Riggs gets two. Bagwell regains control and debuts the Buff Blockbuster for the pin at 14:15. Way too long, but that could go for the entire show at this point. Bagwell dances with some women on the stage and Bischoff not so subtlely says Bagwell was an escort at some point prior.

More Miss NWO stuff. At least contestant #8 is kind of attractive but this is still stupid.

One fall: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Scott Norton

Page has a signature move called the pancake and Norton used to have a gimmick where he ate 298 pancakes in one sitting, so something has to give.

Page was the one babyface allowed to look good against the NWO at this point, so of course they work a headlock. Page connects with the pancake in the first three minutes, but Norton uses a jawbreaker to avoid the Diamond Cutter. The crowd gets distracted by Sting appearing in the crowd, and given they keep a wide shot of him it must be the NWO version of Sting instead. Norton hits a shoulderbreaker and Page sells the shoulder the rest of the way. Too bad Norton doesn’t actually work on the shoulder. Page gains control, and Bagwell leads Bubba, Wallstreet and Vincent to the ring. They offer Page a spot in the NWO, even though he turned it down once already on Nitro about two weeks back. Page accepts and put on the shirt, then he takes Norton down with a Diamond Cutter. DiBiase sounds shocked this failed a second time, and DDP leaves the ring and gets himself counted out. Except Patrick just says it was a countout as there was no count and no bell. Let’s call the time 10:18.

The Miss NWO competition has become so pathetic that the next portion of it is being heard while they’re still showing replays of the match.

OK, I’m done doing running commentary on matches like this as they’re all essentially the same with Nick Patrick favoring the heels and being against the faces, so I’m going to stick to the finish. As the Steiners go for a top-rope DDT, Kevin Nash knees Rick Steiner in the back, running him into Patrick who falls to the floor. Scott Hall hits the Outsider’s Edge on Scott and there’s no referee to count. In the confusion, Rick hits Hall with a top rope bulldog, places Scott on top, and Randy Anderson runs in from the crowd and counts the pin at 14:39. This is literally the first thing the crowd popped for all night, but DiBiase and Bischoff flat out say the change won’t stand and Anderson will get fired on Monday. Which is exactly what happened. Let me repeat that. The only result the crowd actually liked in the first two hours of the show wound up not mattering 48 hours later.

At least Nick Patrick’s bias can’t affect a ladder match. I hope. Stuff like introducing Guerrero as a Mexican jumping bean is why there was a racism lawsuit fired by pretty much every minority who ever worked for the company. Syxx wears the belt to the ring as I think he stole the belt from Guerrero on a Nitro prior to this. DiBiase and Bischoff are putting over Patrick working the show by himself and I think he’s the only person who’s getting over at this rate. Patrick is in the ring for this match for…I dunno, some reason. I just reffed a ladder match Saturday night and they told me to stay outside the ring as staying in the ring didn’t make sense. Typical WCW. Actually a disappointing match but still the best thing on this show. The end comes when both men grab the belt, Guerrero hits Syxx with it and ends up being the one who comes down with it at 13:56. Bischoff actually tries to claim this will be a Dusty finish as well but there’s no possible way that would work even by WCW standards.

The Miss NWO competition finally ends. We waste nearly the entire show for Bischoff to choose woman who can’t be a day under 55. I have no issues with people being attracted to older women but I think it’s safe to say most people who ordered this had no interest in seeing Bischoff make out with someone who could be their mother.

Giant, better known these days as The Big Show, won the World War 3 battle royal in November to earn the title shot but was kicked out of the NWO for daring to get the shot. Of course, two weeks before this was the infamous Robin Hood match, where a six minute match between the two was edited in such a way to come off like it went 45-minutes to artificially increase ratings for the worst Robin Hood show ever made. So this match is boring and feels longer than it is. Giant does jump off the top rope for an elbowdrop but misses. A move like this and he misses? Oh, WCW! Hogan hits the Big Leg Drop, and as Hogan celebrates, Giant no sells his finish and hops to his feet. Giant choke slams Hogan, Patrick twice stops his count at 2 claiming Hogan kicked out when he clearly didn’t, then the third time acts as if he hurts his shoulder. Giant then choke slams Patrick, which leads to mass run-ins aplenty. The numbers eventually become too great and the Giant is laid out in the ring with NWO 4 Life spraypainted on his back and absolutely no help from anybody. We’re off the air with no winner, call it 12:00 but does it matter?

So sticking with the positives (and there aren’t many), this show, while horrible, was logically booked. WCW wins just three of the eight matches, one because Patrick is intimidated into making the pin, one because a WCW official made the count, and one because Patrick had no choice due to the rules of the match. It makes sense. However, it showed that the NWO gimmick could not survive on its own as the fans were completely disgusted by the end of the show. That didn’t stop them from planning on an NOW-specific TV show a year later (that thankfully never happened due to a one night experiment bombing).

Next time I’ll watch something better, I promise.