Tuesday, June 11, 2013

WCW Monday Nitro - 5/20/96

There's pyro to open the show from Charlotte, North Carolina. WCW is getting wild! Mongo isn't there tonight so he can train with Kevin Greene. Its a 90 minute episode tonight in preparation for the Great American Bash, featuring matches such as DDP vs Brad Anderson, Ric Flair vs Eddy Guerrero, and Sting & Luger vs the Faces of Fear! Let's get started!



First up is Fire & Ice vs the Steiner Brothers. Scott unsurprisingly outwrestles Ice Train but Ice Train manages to overpower him. Scott hits Ice Train with a belly-to-belly suplex. Double tag, Scott Norton and Rick Steiner in, Rick hits Norton with a release German. Norton is a bad wrestler but he is lightyears better than Ice Train. Rick picks a two count up off the German and tags in Scott. Scott nails a Dragon Suplex but Norton rolls to the floor. Scott S. almost botches a supersledge to the floor on Norton. Back in the ring, there's an irish whip sequence that ends with Scott Steiner taking a samoan drop. Double tag again, Fire & Ice dump the Steiners out of the ring to the floor. Bell rings, no contest. What a match.

Next up is a match guaranteed to be better, Eddy Guerrero vs Ric Flair. Flair is accompanied to the ring by Miss Elizabeth and Woman. Liz is wearing cut offs and leather jacket, Woman is in a gown. Eric says "Woman looks like a giant thumb," and Heenan recoils, "My goodness." This crowd in Charlotte hates Ric Flair somehow!
Collar and elbow tie up, Eddy takes control with a headlock take over sequence. Eddy is awesome and Heenan is playing him up as a huge threat, but that still doesn't stop Bobby and Eric from talking over the match. As Ric takes control and starts throwing chops, the commentary team starts talking. Anyway, Eddy returns chops until Flair tumbles over the top rope. Flair goes for a char. Referee Randy Anderson takes Flair's chair and gives him a shove. Flair WOOs at the crowd. Eddy struts around the ring and throws some chops. Flair flops it off them. Cut to commercial. As we come back, Eddy is babyface powering out of Flair's rest hold. He gets a 2 count with a sunset flip. Flair starts working over Eddy. Eddy turns the tables and locks on a Figure Four. Flair manages to get to the ropes and roll to the floor. Eddy whiffs a top turnbuckle plancha and smashes into the barricade. Heenan says Flair's a fifteen-time champ. Eric says two of those championships don't count. Flair hits a huge stalled vertical suplex for a near fall. Eddy powers back again. This is a long, back & forth match. Eddy throws a couple 'ranas and calls for the frog splash. Flair chops Eddy down and locks his own Figure Four on. Eddy loses via pin while locked in the figure four. Great match, hard to call due to so many mirror spots. Really fun to watch.

Gene comes down to the ring and interviews Flair. Gene says Savage is in the building tonight. Flair says Savage is actually in Jail. "I'm trading your wife for a new way of life," he tells Savage. Flair then calls out Mongo and says he's too scared to be there tonight. Crowd chants Mongo. "You crosstrain football and wrestling the way I crosstrain the girls." Damn, Ric Flair.

Flair comes on commentary. "Bobby, you can touch the girls. Eric, hands off." Flair is just going nuts on the mic, talking to himself, making insane unfollowable jokes. Eric lets us know that Sting isn't 100% and that Luger is the "human veg-o-matic." Heenan buries Wahoo McDaniels for no reason. Commentary is way more compelling than the match. "I'm engrossed in the moment." Double headbutts, two count. Sting getting worked over. Heenan and Flair are telling dirty jokes. Sting's hot tag gets cut off. Sting finally gets up and goes for his top rope splash, Luger picks up the pin. Eric lets us know that Savage is officially in the building.

Savage is not in the building. He is being held outside by police again. Mean Gene Okerlund says that Savage needs to calm down, and that WCW officials are deciding on Savage's fate. Savage threatens the WCW suits and says to tell Nick Bockwinkle to make the right decision. He keeps rushing the doors and the cops push him back.

Diamond Dallas Page vs Brad Armstrong is next. DDP can face the champion in June thanks to the Lord of the Rings and his mystery benefactor. This is kind of a nothing match and DDP wins with a Diamond Cutter. DDP keeps giving himself self high-fives and Heenan says that he's "Neato." Commentary is great tonight. Gene comes out and DDP cuts a promo on the Giant. They show the video of DDP skinning the cat and touching the ground like Shawn Michaels. DDP is stripped of his title shot, but not his Lord of the Rings victory. The title shot goes to Luger and they book Luger vs whoever is the champ at Great American Bash. Why. No faith in the Diamond Cutter at WCW.

Arn Anderson vs the Giant is our main event. Arn is accompanied by the Taskmaster. There is apparently some sort of "Benoit situation" and Taskmaster is not an adjunct horseman. Flair threatens to play for the Carolina Panthers. Giant squashes Anderson, hits him with some insane, huge backdrops. Arn chops the Giant down to the ground with double axe handles, calls for the DDT, eats a chokeslam for three. That's it.

Brother Count: Countless brothers on commentary, but only two on the show proper.

Let's Talk About This Wrestler's Backstory Watch: Scott Norton hated being teamed with Ice Train. He thought he was being misused being stuck with this big slow dude. But like at the same time, he's still Scott "Flash" Norton. Being a big armwrestling gaijin doesn't really cut it in a company like WCW.

Mongo Sucks Everybody Rules: Commentary was amazing tonight. Things not touched in the recap:
"If Michaels goes nuts and they put him away and Debra goes with Flair, who gets custody of the hound?" "You do[, Bobby]." "No, I want my shoes clean." Sick Pepe burn, Bobby.
Flair holds up four fingers, "This used to stand for the four horsemen, now it stands for take a look over Eric's shoulder!" Flair gestures at the chests of the women.

Broski of the Week: No clear broski this week, but the crowd chanting "Mongo" was pretty surreal

Next Week on Nitro: More Savage/Flair nonsense? Probably. DDP? Maybe. A good match with Eddy or Malenko or somebody? Who knows!

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