Stojy watches the Monday Night War

[Skyefire]

Sounds like a classic "Dusty" finish. Shawn & Diesel seemingly win the tag titles, but have to give them up the next night. Titles vs Titles and in the end everyone keeps their own.

 

[Stojy]

Sounds like a classic "Dusty" finish. Shawn & Diesel seemingly win the tag titles, but have to give them up the next night. Titles vs Titles and in the end everyone keeps their own.

I understand the concept of the dusty finish for sure, but regardless of the booking reason behind it, for me, the illogical ending hurt what was a really fun match.

WWF Monday Night Raw
September 25th, 1995
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Match One
Marty Jannetty vs. Skip w/Sunny

Am I allowed to gush over how hot Sunny was back in the day? Anyway, I guess another thing worth pointing out here is this is Jannetty’s return to the WWF after over 12 months of being away. I honestly thought Jannetty looked not up to the pace here, but luckily Candido (Skip) is a goer and carries him to a solid match here. Some fun spots with Jannetty tricking Sunny into giving him a hug on the outside, and it’s worth noting that Dean Douglas decides to come out and take some notes on the match as well. They have a good back and forth with Sunny getting involved, and they go about seven minutes or so. In the end, Jannetty hits his shitty Rocket Dropper, before a Flying Fist drop to get the win. The Candido fan in me is sad at this result, but I guess in the WWF world Jannetty is the bigger name and needs a win on his return. Solid match overall. **3/4

We now see clips from a conference between Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Cornette and Cornette’s lawyer, the awesome Clarence Mason. After some discussion and some threats from Mason, Gorilla makes the announcement that Owen Hart being pinned last night was not the right call. The British Bulldog was instated as the tag champion with Yokozuna for one night only. Thus, the decision is reversed, and Owen and Yoko are still the World Tag Team Champions. This makes sense after the stupid ending to last night’s main event so at least it’s logical progression.

Match Two
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Owen Hart and Yokozuna (c) w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. The Smoking Gunns

I found this one to be nothing terrible but not that enjoyable. Considering how bad I think the Gunns are, I probably need to give credit to Owen and Yoko for carrying them to a decent match. They do what they can to carry them, but yeah, Gunns just aren’t any good. It’s hilarious to think one of the members in this team would eventually win KOTR, but that’s for the future I guess… Billy gets isolated for most of this match before getting the hot tag to Bart. The finishing run happens, and Yoko gets sent crashing into Owen, which allows The Gunns to hit their crappy Sidewinder finish on Owen. Yoko tries to break the pin with a Leg Drop but Bart moves and Yoko hits Owen. They then rush Yoko out of the ring and Bart pins Owen. We’ve got new champions who will probably do more harm to the tag division than good. The miscommunication between Yoko and Owen also probably plants the seeds for some future stuff so there’s that, but this wasn’t good by any means. **1/4

After the match, to give The Gunns more of a rub, WWF Champion Diesel and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels come out to celebrate with them. I guess considering their issues with Camp Cornette it makes some what of sense, but definitely like the idea of The Gunns being endorsed by two of the three most popular wrestlers in the company. Makes them feel like a big deal… Even if they suck.

They announce some matches for next week’s Raw which include another Bret vs. Jean Pierre LaFitte match and 123 Kid vs. Razor Ramon. Next week sounds like a good show based off match announcements alone.

Gorilla Monsoon also makes some announcements for the next In Your House on October 22nd. Diesel will defend the WWF Title against The British Bulldog, with the winner going on to defend the title against Bret Hart at Survivor Series in November. Also at IYH, Shawn Michaels will defend the IC Title against Dean Douglas… Or will he? I’m down for all of these matches to be honest.

Match Three
The British Bulldog w/Jim Cornette vs. The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer

Obviously both Cornette and Bearer are at ringside which makes for some interesting moments throughout. ‘Taker starts off this pretty well, dominating Bulldog, until he gets distracted on the outside. He then grabs Cornette which allows Bulldog to get a Chop Block. This starts Bulldog’s main offensive strategy for the match which is working on the leg. Credit to ‘Taker here to, he sells the leg really well in what is probably one of his best-selling performances in the WWF to this point which is worth calling out. We also see King Mabel and Sir Mo come to the entrance ramp to watch and Waylon Mercy is shown watching as well. Match was fundamentally sound, just maybe a little slow with no real hot run/fun finishing sequence to make it a good match. In the end, as ‘Taker got on a bit of a run, Mabel and Mo come in and attack him, leading to a DQ finish. Not a great main event, even if it had positive aspects to it. **

After a Belly to Belly Suplex from Mabel, ‘Taker is out of it. It’s a three on one attack and it makes life easier for Bulldog to nail him with a Running Powerslam! Mabel looks ready to potentially land a big splash, but Diesel and Shawn Michaels run down for the save and the heels leave the ring. Owen and Yoko come down for the heels to get the numbers advantage again, but as they surround the ring, The Smoking Gunns run to the ring and even things up again. The faces all stand tall around the recovering Undertaker in the ring and the heels leave. After they have gone, ‘Taker slowly gets up and strangely shakes hands with everybody. Interesting moment in history here for sure, as it might seem like a throw away moment, but this kind of feels like the first-time dark side ‘Taker felt like another face. They treated him just kind of human here which is different. Still, a fine ending to the show with multiple angles creating chaos.

I guess this was meant to somewhat feel like a big show with the tag title switch and the aftermath of the main event. Didn’t quite hit the mark for me though with the in-ring action not really being enjoyable throughout outside of Skip/Jannetty. Aftermath of the main was the only thing that felt good. Show gets a thumbs down from me.​

 

[Stojy]

WCW Monday Nitro
September 25th, 1995
Florence, South Carolina

Two big time matches announced so far for tonight’s show with Lex Luger vs. Meng and Randy Savage vs. Kevin Sullivan. Also worth noting that I just can’t get into Eric Bischoff as a commentator. I don’t think he’s bad per se, but it definitely feels like he’s sitting in the seat that belongs to Tony Schiavone.

Match One
Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno

This is four to five minutes to open up the in-ring action and I guess it’s okay without being good. I must admit I am finally pumped to see Disco in action. Wright botches quite a bit here, including almost losing it on a Springboard attempt, but then he kind of counters that and shows off some nice aerial skills to, especially his no hands plancha to the outside. A mixed bag that’s for sure. I think it’s easy to see both are pretty green at this point as Disco looks a little slow in terms of reacting to things throughout as well. Disco does control most of the match though, and he lands an awesome Lariat at one point that almost finishes off Wright. Disco gets too cocky and starts dancing around when attempting a Neckbreaker and it allows Wright to sneak a Backslide for the win. And just like that, Disco’s eight day long winning streak on WCW Television is over lol. Not offensive or anything this one, but nothing to write home about either. **

In a pre-taped segment, Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart are standing in what is obviously a fake locker room setting. Hogan talks about Halloween Havoc and the monster truck challenge. He’s also weirdly got the title strapped around his neck and doing neck lifts. I’m guessing maybe that’s a way to show he’s okay after Fall Brawl but looked weird. Hogan is ready to take down the big stinky giant. Not one of Hogan’s better promos.

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the ring, and he showed footage of last week’s confrontation between Lex Luger and Randy Savage. Once the recap of last week is finished, both men make their way to the ring. One issue I have with these two, is a lot of times their promos were very incoherent. Anyway, after yelling a bunch of useless stuff, I think the summary of this is that Luger challenges Savage to a first time ever match between the two of them for next week’s Nitro. Luger will put his future World Title shot on the line. Not only that, but Luger’s so confident that he’ll win, that if Savage beats him, he'll leave WCW. Savage agrees to his match and puts out his hand for a shake, but Luger turns his back and leaves. I’ve enjoyed the way this has come about and I’m all for Luger’s title shot being on the line. Not a huge fan of the Luger leaving WCW stipulation though. He’s only been there for a few weeks, kind of telegraphs the result for a big match which is disappointing.

Match Two
Kurosawa w/Col. Parker vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman

Yes, this was not good. This was awful. Yucky stuff. Also Pittman is apparently a face now which understandably falls flat. He controls Kurosawa for most of the match, but I honestly don’t care. Pittman was a crappy heel and if this is anything to by, he’s not a good face either. No character traits or facial expressions or anything that make me feel any sort of sympathy towards him. For some reason, in a throw away match on Nitro, Kurosawa moves the pads and reveals the concrete floor, and Back Body Drops Pittman onto the concrete floor. Back in this time period, that feels like a big spot to have these two pulling off during a nothing match on Nitro. Anyway, that bump kills Pittman and Kurosawa finishes him off with a German Suplex. I’m guessing this opens the door to run a redemption arc for Pittman as he’s probably never been dominated like that before. Shit match though. ½*

This time Mean Gene is in the ring with Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman. What’s interesting here is some of the camera angles/production set up by WCW is awful, and you can visibly see heaps of empty seats during this segment which isn’t ideal. Anyway, Pillman says that ever since Double A walked that aisle at Fall Brawl, the Nature Boy has reached an all time low. Pillman busts out a pretty nutty Flair impression as well. Unlike Flair, he comes across more crazy than charismatic, but considering future Pillman angles, that’s some nice foreshadowing. Pillman says that Flair is grovelling and begging on his hands and knees like some gutter slime begging for pocket change in the sewers. This is all in regard to Flair finding a partner, and when Anderson takes over, he says at Fall Brawl, the better man won and now Flair can’t find a partner with a fist full of fifties. If Flair wants revenge, he needs to remember the formula. Arn says he was disgusted to see Flair approach Randy Savage about being a partner, especially when he beat up Randy’s 70-year-old dad a few months ago. Umm so I don’t know if I missed something, but I don’t recall Flair approaching Savage. Are they just making stuff up here? Arn talks about Flair begging Sting to be his partner as well and tells Flair what goes around, comes around.

Match announcements for WCW Saturday Night. Sting vs. Johnny B Badd for the US Title, The Giant responds to Hogan’s challenge, and Dusty Rhodes returns. Sounds fun, but I won’t be recapping this. Nitro is enough for me.

We get another viewing of the batshit crazy Baywatch brawl that they are using to hype the next match.

Match Three
Kevin Sullivan vs. Randy Savage

This one starts off with Savage getting attacked by The Zodiac on his way to the ring. This gives Sullivan the control right off the bat, and he dominates for the first few minutes of the match. These two kind of have that psycho mentality which made for a really fun brawl once they got outside of the ring. The type of brawl that makes me think I could sit and watch them have a 12-minute Street Fight and I’d probably love it. I guess maybe the action inside the ring, Sullivan was potentially a little gentler then how he would have laid into a jobber but that makes sense. Savage eventually starts making an awesome comeback, so The Zodiac gets on the apron again, only for Savage to throw Sullivan into him. A furious Savage then drags The Zodiac into the ring and starts beating the hell out of him, until the referee tries to intervene. A ballistic Savage throws the referee out of his way which leads to a DQ. Not long enough to be anything really, but I thought this had the potential to be good. **

After the match, Savage keeps on the attack, fighting off both men before nailing The Zodiac with the Flying Elbow Drop. And just as things are looking good, The Giant makes an appearance and makes his way towards the ring. The Giant drills Savage with a Chokeslam. Let’s mark this down as another historic moment as I believe this is the first time he used the move, and Savage sells it like he’s dead. The Giant looks to inflict more damage, but the locker room empties out to prevent violence, but instead The Giant just destroys them all with Chokeslams. Realistically, I think in the early stages, the highest profile person who gets destroyed is Alex Wright, nobody else matters. Things get more interesting though when Lex Luger makes his way to the ring. The Giant and Sullivan back off as Luger bends down to say something to Savage, but then The Giant attacks Luger and he gets a Chokeslam as well. Sullivan is upset with that move though and he yells at The Giant as he drags him away from causing more damage. Considering the question mark around Luger’s allegiance, this was a really interesting progression for that angle. And you can’t help but love the way The Giant is being booked at the moment.

After the break, Lex Luger is still trying to battle back to his feet because now he has to try and deal with Meng. Poor guy.

Match Four
Meng vs. Lex Luger

They get six minutes or so here and it’s okay without being anything overly good once again. With Luger suffering after the Chokeslam, Meng runs down and basically starts dominating him from the get-go. This leads to Meng controlling virtually the entire match. The only thing is Meng is better against guys he can just maul and destroy really quickly, but unfortunately, he can’t do that here because Lex needs to be protected. Don’t get it twisted, Meng still does rule though. Story just worked really well here though, further putting over the Chokeslam with the disadvantage that Luger has throughout. To his credit, Luger sells pretty well during Meng’s beat down as well. Luger begins to make a comeback and starts looking like he could possibly win, however with the crowd giving him a LOUD ovation, Luger focuses to much on posing and working them up. This allows Meng to get the golden spike on his thumb. When Luger turns back to face Meng, the spike gets driven right into the neck of Luger. And boom, that’s enough for Meng to get the somewhat surprising victory, but again, booking wise Luger has an out after cheap tactics and the giant Chokeslam. **1/4

Before the show goes off the air, our commentators hype the fact that Hulk Hogan will be at Nitro next week. And of course, we can’t forget the Luger/Savage match which is arguably the most well hyped match so far in the Monday Night Wars.

This was the weakest episode of Nitro so far for me. In ring action was below par for most the night, and the first half of the show arguably didn’t matter. Second half it heated up with some nice angle progression and what not, but just not a good one.

The Verdict

Not a strong showing from either show this week in terms of in ring action. I’m leaning towards Raw just because I think Skip/Jannetty was better than anything else put on this week. In terms of angle advancement, both shows had some pretty solid movement with their main event scene, but WWF’s intertwining of the tag titles into the main event angle worked better for me. They get the win this week.
​

Raw	2
Nitro	2

 

[Stojy]

Stojy Watches Monday Night Wars
September 1995 Summary

Best show of the month
I’ve given both Raw and Nitro 2 wins each in the initial four week stretch. Nitro probably had bigger surprises and a bigger impact on the business due to it being the debut, but based on overall performance, I’m calling this month a tie.

PPV of the month
I couldn’t really split the PPV’s this month either. Thought Fall Brawl and In Your House 3 were of relatively similar quality.

Top 5 matches of the month
Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair – Fall Brawl
Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte – In Your House 3
Ric Flair vs. Sting – Nitro, September 4th
Triple Header: The British Bulldog and Yokozuna (c) w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Diesel (c) and Shawn Michaels (c)
Bam Bam Bigelow vs. The British Bulldog – In Your House 3

Top 5 wrestlers of the month (based on my opinion of match quality)
Ric Flair
Jean Pierre Lafitte
Brian Pillman
Shawn Michaels
The British Bulldog

Note: There were some guys like Arn Anderson and Bret Hart who had ONE amazing match each, but I didn’t want that to get them in. I’ve tried to keep this section to people who have had multiple matches in the month.

That’s it. Just a nice little fun recap to summarise the month. I’ll do these at the end of every month, as well as a yearly recap at the end of the year which might be a little more in depth. ​

 

[Stojy]

WWF Monday Night Raw
October 2nd, 1995
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Match One
123 Kid vs. Razor Ramon

Until maybe last week when things got interesting in the main event scene, this has been the best angle on Raw so far so looking forward to this one. Honestly, right from the get-go, Kid just bumps like an absolute psycho to make the match look good, even from the initial start of the match when Razor throws him over the top rope and to the outside. I’m torn on Razor during his time in the WWF if I’m honest, and that goes here as well. He doesn’t do anything to make this a bad performance, but he’s not necessarily tearing the house down either. Anyway, as the match progresses, they have Dean Douglas come down to the outside to watch. Kid ends up missing a Spinning Heel Kick, and then Ramon gets a weak looking Clothesline and that gets a three count. A Clothesline finishing off Kid doesn’t do him any favours from a booking standpoint. He grabs a mic, wants a restart and slaps Razor so the match does get restarted. Kid just gets beaten up from here before eventually trying a Flying Hurricanrana but falling victim to a Powerbomb to lose again. Again, Kid is persistent and wants to keep fighting so Ramon keeps beating him up. After a Back Superplex, Ramon thinks about the Razor’s Edge but then shows pity and hooks an Inside Cradle for another win. I’ve enjoyed the angle, but I feel like the booking here took a downward turn. In their last meeting together, it felt like they were really building some credibility for Kid, but he no longer looks on Razor’s level after this. Disappointing, especially because Kid is awesome. **​

After the match, the two share an off-mic conversation, and seem to be getting along again. Kid then tries to get a Roll Up out of nowhere which Ramon seems to begrudgingly respect. Kid then offers to get hit with the Razor’s Edge but instead they shake hands and make up.

We then get some hype for some of the matches currently announced for the next IYH PPV. Shawn Michaels vs. Dean Douglas for the IC Title, Undertaker vs. King Mabel and Marty Jannetty vs. the debuting Goldust. LOVE Goldust.

Match Two
Barry Horowitz vs. Triple H

Really not a lot to say about this one. A squash for Triple H to look good. Fun and brutal though for what it was which is good. Obviously, the Pedigree finishes things off here. *3/4​

Oh hey, we get the first PG 13 appearance here. I like PG 13 so yay. They are the USWA Tag champs at the time and they cut a pre tape talking about how they will beat The Smoking Gunns and become the WWF Tag Team Champions.

Match Three
Al Brown and Sonny Rogers vs. PG 13

Again, I think they’re a really good team. For the times, they have some pretty cool double team moves, and they move around together rather quickly as well which makes things look extra crisp. When they do give their opponents some offense, they bump around really well also. Really solid stuff from them and they obviously get the win, with them being introduced as a somewhat big deal. How unfortunate that the crowd didn’t care at all. Stupid crowd. **​

Big time match announcement for next week with Diesel, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker to team up to face Owen Hart, Yokozuna and The British Bulldog. This one should be awesome.

It’s also announced that regardless of who is the WWF Champion after the upcoming In Your House, Bret Hart will get the next WWF Championship match at Survivor Series.

Match Four
Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte

Another banger between these two, much like their last two matches, even if I’ve only covered one as part of a project. It’s a funny thing because a lot of criticism on Bret Hart is that a lot of his matches are the same, but I think this series with Pierre is an example of how that’s not the case. Yes, everybody has their five moves of doom, that doesn’t mean the match is the same. These guys have had three different matches and each one has been DIFFERENT to the others. The first was more of a wrestling match, where they started actually wrestling and the heat and anger slowly built. The second one Bret was furious, and it was just a wild brawl with both men out for blood. And now we get a dog fight again, but it’s reigned back slightly because, well, that’s the art of a good TV match as opposed to PPV. They have a lot of new spots and bumps in this match that weren’t in the previous ones though, so things get changed up and this match holds up really well. I will say we’ve been blessed with some awesome matches considering this feud started over a jacket being stolen. It’s funny because I just talked about how Bret changes things up, but in the finishing run he does basically run through his five moves of doom in perfect sequence with nothing in between. I’d argue that doesn’t happen all that often though, so it gets a pass from me. If there’s one thing that irked me about this match, is there was to much focus on Jerry Lawler. I get it, Lawler and Bret hate each other and that’s clearly where Bret will move to kill some time before his title shot but would have been nice for this blow off between two great wrestlers to be the main focus. Anyway, long story short, after a PCO heat period, Bret comes back and makes him tap to the Sharpshooter. Really good stuff. ***​

After the match, Hart and Lawler exchange some words and Bret ends up attacking Lawler, until Isaac Yankem intervenes and nails Bret with a DDT on the concrete. That’s brutal. They leave and Bret needs help getting to the back because he’s out of it.

Before the show goes off the air, Vince McMahon announces that Gorilla Monsoon has confirmed that in two weeks, Bret and Yankem will face off in a Steel Cage Match!!!

I thought this show was still solid but admittedly, it under delivered a little. Bret/Pierre was everything I thought it would be, however I had high hopes for Razor/Kid and that didn’t quite hit the mark. Gets a pass mark because I like PG 13 and Triple H which means the squashes were enjoyable for me this week.

 

[Stojy]

WCW Monday Night Nitro
October 2nd, 1995
Denver, Colorado​

We start off with commentators running down tonight’s card and it looks STACKED. Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson, Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage with Luger’s career on the line, American Males vs. Nasty Boys for the tag titles, and Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko. Let’s get to it!

The Savage/Luger situation gets a lot of focus from the commentary team, before Bischoff tells the audience that if they call the WCW hotline right now, Mike Tenay will give out the results to Raw as they happen. I’m guessing this means Raw was live this week, so Bischoff didn’t have the results ahead of time. Still love the tactics though and Mongo chimes in with, “Yeah and you can put it on speaker phone so your parents can listen along with you”. Lol Mongo is hilarious but not necessarily in the way he’s supposed to be… I think.

Anyway, eventually the commentators get interrupted as Ric Flair comes up and snatches Bischoff’s headset. He says tonight will be a mile high night that Double A is never going to forget.

Match One
Leg Luger’s Career on the line
Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage

This one gets ten minutes so they actually get the chance to have a real match. The negative side of that is that they get ten minutes, but the match is not very good. Honestly, in the end the match is all just preamble to an angle which probably isn’t overly surprising considering it’s an episode of Nitro. From the get-go, it feels like maybe they are stalling a little, as they have a super long tie up sequence, putting over that neither man can win the battle of strength. That’s ridiculous in itself, Luger should be winning on strength, and Savage should be relying on his quickness and skill. Luger’s character continues to be really interesting though, so I enjoyed that a few times during the matches, he used the ropes to block things. It’s bending of the rules at the smallest degree, so he can still probably claim wrestling a clean match. With all the conjecture around where Luger’s allegiance lays, this is the perfect way to play it. But yeah, a lot of sloppiness and a lot of rest holds. There’s eventually a ref bump and Savage manages to land his Flying Elbow. There’s no ref to pin though and then The Giant comes down, grabs a hold of Savage and drills him with a Chokeslam. Luger doesn’t see it and gets up and puts Savage in the Torture Rack. I will say Luger does some nice selling, apparently struggling to get Savage up but when he locks it in, the ref calls for the bell. Booking wise, this works for the angle they have going on, but as a match, it didn’t really deliver. *3/4​

Lex immediately collapses and drops Savage after the bell rings, showing just how exhausted he is.

Next up, the commentators hype the pending edition of WCW Saturday Night, but we won’t touch on that in here.

Disco Inferno makes his way out to dance on the stage. Let’s go, Disco! Then Eddie Guerrero comes out for the next match, and he chases Disco away.

Match Two
Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero

After watching some of their stuff in ECW previously, it’s a little disappointing that these two only get five minutes to work here. Only because you just know what they’re capable of with more time. With that being said, I still think this did the job of establishing who they both are, but due to the time restraints, it’s clearly not their best effort. They still deliver for the time they have though because they work so well together. Miles ahead of probably what the rest of the roster could do at this point. Irritating that they choose this match to have the camera switching to Hulk Hogan arriving, still wearing a neck brace. Jimmy Hart tries to warn Hogan, but he says he’s giant hunting. Anyway, back to the match and Malenko was on top early, and then Eddie started to make a comeback. Malenko headed to the outside to kill the momentum, but Eddie climbed to the top and did a huge ten feet leap to take down Malenko. It was an awesome spot and rightly got a huge pop from the crowd. In the end, they fall into a fun exchange and Eddie counters a Prawn Hold takeover down into one of his own to get the flash pin win. Solid, but these two have better in them. **1/2​

After the match, Malenko is pretty pissed off and he stops Eddie from leaving and tells him he got lucky. The two agree to a rematch anytime, and then they shake hands because there’s still respect there.

Back from the break, Mean Gene is in the ring, and he brings out his guest, Hulk Hogan. Hogan talks about how a cancer patient kid told him to beat that nasty, stinky Giant. He said after what has gone down with The Giant, he’s had to do some soul searching. It’s basically a typical Hogan promo really and he then does his shirt rip bit, before walking around ringside and high fiving some fans. Suddenly, a woman throws powder in his eyes. The elderly lady then hops the railing and knocks out Jimmy Hart with her cane, before revealing herself to be Kevin Sullivan in disguise. Sullivan beats on Hogan with the cane before rolling him back into the ring. The Zodiac then leads The Giant out to the ring and Giant takes Hogan’s neck brace off and snaps his neck again. Sullivan then pulls out a pair of clippers and they shave off Hogan’s iconic moustache. The American Males then run down to intervene but Giant Chokeslams both of them. The Nasty Boys come down and they get Chokeslammed as well. Awesome shock attack, The Giant looks phenomenal and now a scheduled match is cancelled which puts over the chaotic nature of the show. Awesome angle this.

Match Three
Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair

A nice change up from Fall Brawl based on their dynamic of the feud. Fall Brawl was more of a wrestling match, both men trying to prove that they are the better man. Now that Pillman has got involved and Arn has wronged Flair, this match is a fight because there’s hatred here now. It’s two enemies going at it, and without being spectacular, I thought this was solid. Maybe a little underwhelming for what these two can usually do. I guess part of that is these two are so good at building an old school wrestling match, and they only got eight minutes to work here. I like that Arn still tries to wrestle at times, and it was Flair who kept turning it into a brawl because he’s the one who has been wronged here. They work snug and there’s no long-extended heat period, it’s relatively back and forth throughout. Eventually, Flair gets the Figure Four in the centre of the ring, but then Brian Pillman runs down and climbs up to the top rope. Flair looks to break the hold to get at Pillman, but in an awesome moment, Arn holds onto Flair and keeps himself in the hold. It’s a sacrifice to allow Pillman to nail a Splash from the top onto Flair. And just like that, the ref calls for the DQ. Solid overall. **3/4​

After the match, Flair gets up and he and Pillman fight until Anderson recovers. Arn chop blocks Flair and then they outnumber him and beat the hell out of him until they decide to leave. As they are leaving, Pillman shoots the Horseman sign and lets out a really bad WOOOOOO, looking like an awesome psychopath in the process.

After the break, at commentary they announce that Ric Flair and Arn Anderson will meet again next week… In a Steel Cage Match!!!

Next week actually looks pretty good, with that alongside Sting/Shark, Big Bubba/Hawk and Sabu/Mr. JL.

A solid show here. Some good angle advancement with the Luger stuff, and the Hogan/Giant angle, and on top of that we got a solid main event.

The Verdict

WCW gets the win for me this week. WWF arguably had the best main event with Bret/Pierre putting on a show, but the booking of Luger, and even the Hogan angle this week was above anything else. Arn/Flair isn’t a main event to scoff at either, but the main difference here is definitely the angle advancement.
​

Raw	2
Nitro	3

 

[Stojy]

WWF Monday Night Raw
October 9th, 1995
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Match One
Diesel, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker vs. Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and Yokozuna

There’s a bunch of people at ringside for this one as can be expected with all the managers that this crew have. Honestly, I thought this was pretty solid. All the match ups in this one is pretty good, with each man performing well, and after being caught with a big Side Slam from Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels is isolated. Again, that makes perfect sense as he’s the most sympathetic man on his team due to his size. They work on the back and as that continues, we see a clip of Waylon Mercy watching on, as apparently, he’s wrestling Diesel on Superstars this week. Dean Douglas also comes down to take notes to continue his issues with Michaels. The timing of things annoyed me here as Owen missed a Diving Headbutt which led to Diesel getting the hot tag, but it happened during the commercial break. Yes, we see a replay but it’s not great. Diesel has a really good run based off his hot tag, until he gets tripped illegally from Owen and Bulldog manages to hit his Running Powerslam. Bulldog makes the cover, but The Undertaker breaks the count. The ending kind of irks me a little. As ‘Taker leaves the ring, Yoko comes in illegally and drops a Leg Drop, which results in Bulldog getting the pin. It’s still a good win for Bulldog and does wonders for his match with Diesel at the PPV but feel the bigger or better impact would have been Bulldog getting the pin straight after the Powerslam. Don’t want to sour on this to much though, really solid stuff. **3/4​

The aftermath was really good here as well. The heels keep beating on Diesel after the match, so The Undertaker returns to the ring to fight them off. ‘Taker dominates the heels until King Mabel appears and attacks him. Now ‘Taker gets destroyed as Mabel and Yoko land respective corner splashes and Leg Drops on ‘Taker. On the outside, Dean Douglas is beating the shit out of Shawn Michaels as well. To be fair, the right hands Douglas lays in on Shawn are probably the best he looked in his entire WWF run. Some real intensity here, and he lands a Gourdbuster onto the top of the ring steps which was sick. Inside of the ring, Owen, Bulldog and Yoko continue to beat up Diesel as Mabel continues to land Splash after Splash on ‘Taker. As Bulldog keeps stomping all over Diesel, Owen works on the leg. Referees come out to try and break things up as we head to a commercial break. Awesome way to have the heels look strong here.

After the commercials, all the heels are gone but Michaels, Diesel and ‘Taker are still all out of it with officials trying to help them. This is an AMAZING part of the angle because it just further puts over the damage the heels have done here. About time the heels look strong. LOVE it.

As the faces are being helped, we get a recap of last week’s issues between Bret Hart, Jerry Lawler and Isaac Yankem DDS.

Even after that, the babyfaces are only just getting to their feet now and being helped to the back.

The last five minutes of the Summerslam match between Bret Hart and Isaac Yankem plays to hype their Steel Cage match next week. I hate when they replay PPV matches on shows like this. I guess they do use this time to get Vince McMahon to announce that if Lawler interferes next week, a smaller cage will be brought from the ceiling and Lawler will be locked in it and suspended above the ring.

Before the next match, on commentary, they report that Mabel is apparently trying to break into The Undertaker’s dressing room.

Match Two
Fatu vs. Skip w/Sunny

I actually like Fatu and Skip, but this is very much a cool down match after the awesomeness of the show so far. I’ve always enjoyed when they play off the hardheaded Samoan gimmick and Skip keeps hurting himself when focusing on the head of Fatu. Really fun stuff. The ending comes about when Skip attempts a top rope Hurricanrana but Fatu fights him off and sends him crashing to the canvas. One Flying Splash later and Fatu is winning. Decent stuff for a throw away match but I do wish Skip would get a win sometime soon. **1/4​

We then get a replay of the epic attack which occurred earlier in the night.

Dok Hendrix is in the back and he says that Shawn Michaels tried to talk to him but he collapsed. He also confirmed that Diesel is really angry and The Undertaker is barely conscious.

In the back, JR interviews Jim Cornette and The British Bulldog. Cornette tells people to feel this moment when Bulldog pinned Diesel. What will happen at the Great White North, Bulldog will pin Diesel one more time when it counts. Bulldog takes over and says he’s been denied title shots his entire career. He pinned Bret Hart in front of 83,000 people, he beat Diesel and he’ll take the title home where it belongs. Mabel comes over and calls Smith his homie lol. He congratulates Bulldog on doing the impossible and says that he did the same by taking out The Undertaker tonight. He says he is going to bury ‘Taker at In Your House, and then all the heels cackle evilly to end the show.

This was an awesome show. Dominated by one angle but it was all done really well. Up there with the first Nitro as one of my favourites so far.

 

[Stojy]

WCW Monday Night Nitro
October 9th, 1995
Chicago, Illinois​

Our commentary trio start by hyping up tonight’s card which includes Sting vs. The Shark for the US Title, Mr. JL vs. Sabu, Big Bubba vs. Hawk and Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair in a Steel Cage. Sounds like a pretty good card to me.

Bobby Heenan then announces that there has been a restraining order filed in the Hogan/Giant situation. Hogan is in the building, but The Giant and Kevin Sullivan are on the outside, and Heenan doesn’t believe they’ll stick to the order.

Sting then shows up at the commentary desk and talks about how the issues between Randy Savage and Lex Luger have gone on long enough. Tonight, he’s going to settle their issues.

Match One
WCW United States Championship Match
Sting (c) vs. The Shark

This literally only goes for like one minute which is pretty disappointing. Sting sticks and moves in the beginning, avoiding any of The Shark’s big moves. Shark has his moment but doesn’t land anything significant and then attempts a Corner Splash, but Sting dodges it. Two quick Stinger Splashes whilst Shark is still in the corner, followed by a Crossbody off the top and Sting get the win. To quick to be anything unfortunately, and even from a booking perspective, I don’t think this type of result does anything for either man in their current situation. ¾*​

We get a video recap of Kevin Sullivan and The Giant attacking and beating down Hogan last week.

A young Justin Roberts is in the crowd. Cool...

Match Two
Mr. JL vs. Sabu

For those of you who are unaware, Mr. JL is Jerry Lynn under a mask with a really creative gimmick and name. Also for those of you who never got a chance to read my ECW BTB way back when, I really dislike Lynn as a wrestler. But I’ll try not to let that cloud my judgement. One thing that blows my mind is that, and go back and watch it if you don’t believe me, Sabu literally got a bigger pop than Sting. That’s kind of crazy. Going into this I was hoping Lynn would fill his natural role as a jobber, and this would make Sabu look like a star. Another fun crowd note is that during this match there are audible “Hogan sucks” chants. Obviously this isn’t ECW so Sabu is a bit limited in terms of what he can do without the weapons, but he still hits some high spots. Plenty of crazy dives and he doesn’t really botch here which is great also. And Jerry Lynn can’t sell to save his life. Sabu hits Air Sabu on the outside and literally less than 5 seconds later, Lynn is back up like nothing happened. Ugh. I also kind of realised that Sabu is probably a better striker then I thought, landing some nice punches here. Anyway, when he feels like it, Sabu ends things with the Camel Clutch. Not good but not bad either. **​

After the match, Sabu takes Lynn to the apron, and gives him a Sunset Flip Powerbomb onto the floor. That was awesome. Take that, Lynn!

Once we’re back, Mean Gene is in the ring with both Lex Luger and Sting. Sting then invites Randy Savage to come out and he does to a HUGE ovation. Sting begins to talk about how The Giant is running rougshod over everybody, but Savage points out that Sting hasn’t been touched by The Giant. This pissess off Sting who tells Savage he’s being paranoid. He then switches tact, talking about how they all want to be World Champion, and they’ve all been there before. Savage loses his patience and tells Sting to get to the point. Sting says if all three of them win their matches at Halloween Havoc, he sees no reason for them to not go at it. Savage loves the idea, but Luger says he doesn’t want to do it on the same night when he already has to face Meng. Lex says Sting is putting words in his mouth, but Sting tells Luger that he’s being disgusting. Basically, Sting then yells a bunch to goad Luger into it and he accepts. Got to the end point here eventually, and it works, but Sting kept jumping from point to point. Honestly, felt like a bit of a mess.

Outside of the CNN centre, a limo arrives. On commentary, Bischoff starts screaming about the guy inside and his worldwide credentials and then Chris Benoit hops out. He asks if this is where the big boys play, before heading into the arena. I’m excited for Benoit’s arrival because I know he’ll be putting on a great match nearly everytime as I watch along.

Much like last week, Disco Inferno comes out and starts dancing, but this time Big Bubba interrupts him and begins making his entrance for the match. Bubba’s music kicks in, but then Disco pulls out a boom box so he can still hear his tune. Haha, that’s awesome. Bubba stares Disco down but opts to ignore him and head to the ring. Hawk comes out and scares the shit out of Disco though. With Hawk’s back turned, Disco grabs a kids hat and puts in on one of Hawk’s spikes and then laughs about it. Hawk notices it once he’s in the ring and prepared to yell at Disco, when Bubba attacks from behind to start the match.

Match Three
Big Bubba Rogers vs. Road Warrior Hawk

They do some sluggish brawling for 90 seconds or so until Disco Inferno returns to ringside. He gets on the apron and dances. Hawk is still furious at earlier and chases Disco, ripping his jacket off in the process. Eventually, Hawk catches Disco and hammers away, but at this happens, the referee counts Hawk out. Nobody’s happy, including me. Why would you book Hawk like this in Chicago of all places? Ugh, even worst than the opener. ½*​

Mean Gene is back in the ring and this time he brings out the World Champion, Hulk Hogan. The heat for Hogan is very loud as he’s basically getting boo’ed out of the building here. I kind of dig it. Hogan comes out dressed in all black for the first time, and Jimmy Hart is matching him as well. As a clever tactic to try and twist the crowd reaction, Gene says the fans are reacting this way because Hogan isn’t wearing his usual red and yellow. Hogan tells Gene to keep his mouth shut and says that he doesn’t want to hear anything from his best friend Jimmy Hart either. He’s wearing all black because it's war and the fun and games are over. It’s time to take care of family business. This is crazy, Hogan’s trying his best to smash out a babyface promo and the audience are literally drowning him out. Makes you wonder how long Hogan’s run on top would have been if he didn’t turn heel in the not to distant future. Anyway, he says that he knows the rules now and now that Hulkamania has been defaced, he’ll play their game. He says he wants to face The Giant now but Okerlund brings up the restraining order. Hogan counters that by saying if The Giant is as bad as he says he is, he’ll come out here. Hogan then randomly goes off on a tyrant talking about his past in the WWF with Vince McMahon. He doesn’t reference the WWF or Vinnie Mac directly but he says that he took Hulkamania away from Vince and those fans up there so they could choke on their own ego. Hogan even says he’s glad they’re dying. Well, this got off topic quickly. Hogan says he came to WCW because he was looking for a place for Hulkamania to grow, and now that he’s here, Kevin Sullivan wants to burn the trees in the forest. Suddenly, a lot of sirens can be heard, and we cut to outside where The Giant, Kevin Sullivan and The Zodiac are on The Giant’s monster truck. They are all trying to get into the arena, but the police officers are keeping them away. Hogan begs the cops to let them in. Hogan then leaves to go after them. Not quite hitting the mark for me if I’m honest. I think it’s just Hogan being such an unlikeable character but trying to come across as the babyface.

After a commercial break, the police officers are at the commentary booth and they say they’re keeping Hogan and The Giant apart.

Match Four
Steel Cage Match
Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair

Not sure why you’d have these two, who work better in long matches, in a big time stipulation like a cage match, and then have the match go less than five minutes. Whilst still not awful by normal standards, this was extremely disappointing for these two. They fight well, the action is good, but the match just didn’t have the time to go anywhere. I’ll try and stop harping on my hurt feelings now. There’s no blood shed here, but there’s a lot of action into and against the cage. Flair’s furious here so he lands some nasty chops and right hands, looking genuinely on fire as a face. I guess Flair having all the offense doesn’t really work for the way Arn wrestles either. Brian Pillman eventually comes out and gets involved, slipping something to Arn and Anderson knocks out Flair with the foreign object, getting another cheap victory in this series. Not their best work but still okay. **1/4​

After the match, as the commentators are ready to wrap up the show, a furious Ric Flair arrives on set. He snatches Bischoff’s headset and actually breaks it and as he does, he looks at Mongo and tells him he doesn’t give a damn. Typical Flair, yelling and screaming as he says he’ll face Anderson and Pillman in a two on one next week. He’ll continue to look for a partner but if he can’t find one, he’ll take them both on and it’ll be time to go to school. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Once Flair is gone, they then do hype next week’s card which includes the match Flair just discussed, as well as: DDP vs. Johnny B Badd for the TV Title, Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero and Jim Duggan vs. Meng

Not a good show for mine. In ring action was underwhelming and even the storyline driven segments/promos weren’t great for me this week.

The Verdict

Considering how much I enjoyed Raw this week, Nitro was always going to struggle to catch it. This wasn’t even close.
​

Raw	3
Nitro	3

 

[RDT]

That post-match beatdown is where Mabel broke Undertaker's orbital bone (you can see the damage on Undertaker's face), which was basically the final nail in King Mabel's WWF run coffin, and led to the phantom of the opera mask for Undertaker.

 

[Leon TrotSky]

Positive words about the build to Mabel/Yoko, never thought I'd see the day