Tuesday, July 31, 2012

WCW Monday Nitro - 2/12/96

Chilly Tampa, Florida welcomes you to WCW Monday Nitro, coming to you live from the Florida State Fair, brought to you by George Steinbrenner who is scheduled to appear tonight! Tonight we learn the results from last night's pay-per-view, Flair is thirteen time champ and Pillman is "history." Tonight, look forward to Hulk Hogan vs Arn Anderson in the main event, with Loch Ness and Macho Man Randy Savage scheduled to appear.
Savage is not only scheduled to appear, but is in the very first match, signed before he lost the title, against Hugh Morrus, which I've been spelling "Morris," sorry Bill DeMott. Savage comes down to the ring no longer selling the eye injury which prevented him from saving Hogan last night, not that Hogan needed saving.  I guess that shot from Elizabeth's shoe was more glancing than the one Hogan suffered, that kept him in an eyepatch for weeks. Morrus takes control early in the match but Savage hits a big boot for two, followed by some eye rakes and some back rakes from Morrus. Savage tries to belly-to-belly suplex the big man, but Hugh Morrus stuffs it and reverses it into a fisherman's suplex, picking up a two count. Savage powers up out of the pin, takes Morrus off his feet, and calls for the elbow. Before he can climb the ropes, however, Morrus gets up, bodyslams Savage, and goes high risk with a moonsault off the top rope that misses its mark. Savage uses this opening to bodyslam Morrus and drop the big top rope elbow. Not once, but twice! Savage picks up the pin but isn't done. He goes for the elbow drop one more time but Morrus rolls to the floor. Savage grabs a mic and calls out Flair. They will have a rematch for the title next week.

Mean Gene Okerlund is on the ramp interviewing WCW racecar driver Steve Grissom. Grissom doesn't really say anything, they play some clips of NASCAR races, and Gene says that Sting will be driving with Grissom at Daytona. Gene also mentions that he beat some dudes at golf earlier in the day.

Next up is American Male Scotty Riggs versus Loch Ness, accompanied by Jimmy Hart. Loch Ness is billed at "nearly 700 pounds." I'm real skeptical about that but can't find any record of Giant Haystack's shoot weight, just that he was billed at over 600 pounds. Riggs starts the match by taking it to the 49 year old. He throws punches and kicks and dropkicks and flying punches to no avail. He goes for a top rope crossbody but Loch Ness botches the catch and just falls over, sort of on top of Riggs. Loch Ness gets back to his feet and drops a couple of elbows to pick up the win.

Back on the ramp with Gene, Miss Elizabeth and Woman wheel in a gurney. Liz says that Savage promised someone was leaving the arena on a gurney last night, and she implies that it took a lot of sex to hospitalize Flair. Ric hops out the gurney and cuts an incredible, insane promo on Savage, but the gist is that Flair's got the gold and he's got the girls. Flair accepts Savage's challenge for a match next week, because he doesn't pass up any opportunity, be it a wrestling match, the chance to fly a jet, or lots of sex with lots of different women. He turns the mic over to Elizabeth again and she implies that Space Mountain is dangerously large.

Our next bout is United States Champion Konnan vs Dangerous Devon Storm. The same Devon Storm who will become marginally better known as Crowbar in a few years. Storm is billed as "suicidal" and the Sabu influence shows. Storm opens the match with a dropkick that knocks Konnan out of the ring. Storm introduces a chair, sets it up in the ring and hits Sabu's running senton to the outside spot. He then grabs the chair, sets Konnan up in it and goes for a running hurricanrana using the ring steps as elevation but Konnan reverses it into a powerbomb on the arena floor. Back in the ring, Konnan hits a lariat followed by a headscissors. Konnan is all over Storm for the rest of the match. He hits Storm with a military press facebuster but only pulls out the two count. The camera cuts to George Steinbrenner in the audience. When the camera cuts back, Storm is stretching Konnan but Konnan quickly reverses it into a leg lock, forcing Storm to the ropes. Storm nails a springboard back elbow, buying him the time to set Konnan up on the apron for a power bomb. Konnan reverses it into a hurricanrana to the outside. Once they get back in the ring, Storm sets Konnan up on the top rope for another hurricanrana but Konnan reverses that into another powerbomb, this time very high impact, and picks up the three. Eric Bischoff, meanwhile, apologizes for implying that the WWF was responsible for the power outages from last week. He says that people take this wrestling stuff too seriously.

For our final match and main event, we have The Enforcer of the Horsemen, Arn Anderson vs Hulk Hogan. AA vs HH. Arn is accompanied to the ring by Woman and Hogan still has his eye patch on. The match is a normal Hogan match. He controls the pace, he cheats, he hulks up, its all the same. They eventually end up outside the ring. AA goes for the spike piledriver but Hogan counters it and slingshots Arn face first into the turnbuckle. He rips off his eye patch, throws Anderson into the ring, and chokes him with his wrist tape. Steinbrenner is really digging Hogan's antics. The whole crowd tonight is generally a lot less hostile to Hogan than last night's. Arn thumbs Hogan's eye and goes high risk but Hogan sacs him on the top rope before he can take advantage. This prompts Flair and Elizabeth to run down. This distraction lets Arn take control and hit the spinebuster, only picking up a two count. This causes Hogan to hulk up, though. Flair starts going nuts at ringside as Hogan locks the Figure Four Leglock on AA. Flair runs in to break it up but Hogan rolls him up easily using his free hand. The ref breaks the hold up as Woman climbs on the apron with a handful of powder. She blinds Hogan, Elizabeth passes Anderson her spiked heel, he nails Hogan with it again and picks up the three count. As they celebrate in the ring, Hogan hulks up. He clears house and chases the Horsemen off but Savage grabs them, drags them back into the ring and introduces a chair. He nails Anderson and the Megapowers celebrate.
Meanwhile, Flair rushes commentary and says that he and Arn just kicked Hogan's ass. Hogan chases Flair off and attacks Brain. Mean Gene makes the save and starts an interview. The Megapowers call out the Horsemen for next week. Hogan declares his desire to become the new enforcer as Nitro goes off the air.

Brother Count: Very light episode this week, scoring only four brothers. 0.067 brothers per minute.

Did Hogan Go Over? He lost the match, via cheating, and still destroyed the heels after it was over. Again. This is Hogan.

The Pepe Award for Pepe's Costume: I honestly don't know. I think it was a pallet-swap of the Miami Papi Pepe costume, but I'm not sure. There were definitely sunglasses and I think a scarf.

Move of the Match: Konnan's entire match was a highlight reel as far as Nitro matches go, but the final powerbomb definitely stands out with how brutal it is.

American Males Memorial Buff Bagwell Sighting: No Buff. Dude didn't even accompany his tag team partner to his squash, but at least we got to hear that sweet, sweet American Males music.

The Terra Ryzing Future of the a Company Award: WWF's Devon Storm and WCW and TNA's Crowbar in his role as Dangerous Devon Storm. See you in a few years.

Randy Savage Award for Least Comprehensible Promo: "The bottom line is, Helter Skelter. Mongo as my witness, No More Mister Nice Guy." Said by Hulk Hogan at the end of the show, the funniest thing the Hulkster has ever said.

Mongo Sucks: In regards to Flair walking off with Elizabeth, "I'd want to beat something." Um, Mongo? Later, "The Dungeon can strip it all down." Even later, in regard to Loch Ness, "Have mercy, Miss Percy." A mild week, all things considered.

Broski of the Week: Our first ever Broski Tie, between the dude with the "Pillman For Pres" sign and the dude with an enormous bedsheet with "BISCHOFF IS SATAN" painted on it.

Advertised Next Week: Hogan vs Anderson, again. Flair vs Savage, for the title.

This marks my tenth one of these, counting the (less than accurate in hindsight) 95 recap. I hope I'm not editorializing too much in the body, but there's just so many identical Hogan matches a person can take, you know? Superbrawl nearly broke my spirit but the NWO cometh soon. Just the rest of the  worst period in modern wrestling history to soldier through.

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