It's time to get rockin', says Tony Schiavone! With the Great American Bash looming this Sunday, we see the building of a number of feuds. The Horsemen, Arn Anderson & Ric Flair, face Desperado Joe Gomez & The Renegade. Giant faces Scott Norton, the man he chokeslammed into oblivion last week. We are also reminded that Razor Ramon promised a big surprise, and "next week is this week," thanks Tony, and we should find out the surprise tonight but its Nitro so anything could happen!!
Starting the show off hot, we have Booker T from the Harlem Heat facing Scott Steiner in singles action. Booker T is just soaking in the boos in this fairly hot match. Its a real showcase for athletic Booker T is. Book picks up an early two off the scissor kick and takes complete control of the match. He gets another two count from a corkscrew crossbody. Steiner shifts momentum by catching Booker T in a Scorpion Death Drop, but refuses to pin. Scott then whiffs the Frankensteiner, Booker catches him with a wheelkick, and only comes up with two. Booker T goes high risk for a splash but pays for it when Scott dodges. Scott quickly nails Booker T with a belly-to-belly to finish off the match.
Mean Gene comes down to ringside. At the Great American Bash, we should expect to see the Steiners vs that blockbuster tag team Fire & Ice. Scott only gets to say that the Steiners are the greatest tag team in the world before Debra McMichael runs in, hijacking the promo. Gene does a pretty good job of carrying her through the promo like a pro. The gist of it is, Debra is scared Mongo might shoot on Flair because he's so overprotective of her. Gene assures her that its not because Mongo cares about her, its just because Flair pushed him too far. Debra asks to call the match off and Mean Gene reluctantly says he'll call a meeting about it.
With the Lord of the Ring ring on the line, we get the incredible match up of Diamond Dallas Page and Jim Powers. The larger Powers overpowers DDP, looking for the quickly early pin before the relative veteran takes control. DDP picks up two off an elbow drop. Powers gets two of his own with a dropkick before Page lands the Diamond Cutter and the match unceremoniously ends.
They play a Taskmaster/Chris Benoit video package, recapping what we've seen on WCW Saturday Night, because we all watch that and are familiar with its storylines. There is then a quick Konnan video package setting him up for an interview with Mene Gene Okerlund. Konnan is wrestling El Gato, a South American superstar who needs to prove himself in America. Konnan cuts a promo on him in Spanish. "Any apathy on your part," he says in English, "will lead to your demise."
Meng vs Sting is up next and Larry says some very racist things about Konnan that will not be repeated here. He then says some sexist things for no reason. Meng grabs two off the bat with an elbow drop and choke. Sting takes control, two with a crossbody block. Sting takes some time and flexes for the crowd, allowing Meng to recover and roll Sting up in a small package for two. Sting gets a quick roll-up of his own, but Meng counters out with a shoulderbreaker. Meng goes high risk, pays for it, Sting locks in the Scorpion Death Lock, forcing Meng to tap out.
Backstage, Gene is interviewing Debra outside the Horsemen's dressing room with Bobby Heenan. Brain claims that Debra has been talking to Flair all night. He drags her to the dressing room and shoves her through the doorway. Debra starts screaming and runs out. Joe Gomez and Renegade come to her rescue but the Horsemen make them pay for it, stomping on their knees and legs until they are declared unfit to wrestle. Replacing them tonight will be the World Tag Team Champions, Sting & Lex Luger!
Squire Dave Taylor wrestles Hacksaw Jim Duggan. This is a Hacksaw match, Hacksaw goes over with the taped fist.
There's a Malenko/Rey Mysterio Jr. video package, showing footage of Malenko in WCW and New Japan and footage of Rey in AAA. Its cool.
Gene then goes down the ramp to interview Big Bubba Rogers. Bubba has John Tenta's hair. That's all this promo is about. Mean Gene compliments Bubba's beard.
Hour two begins with a Scott Norton interview. Norton calls out the Giant and says two chokeslams cant stop him.
In the ring, Giant immediately powerslams Norton in a pretty impressive feat. Norton hits some corner splashes but they don't really faze the Giant. Giant chokeslams Norton on the floor, rolls him back into the ring, and covers him for the three count fall. Giant goes to chokeslam Norton again but Lex makes the save. The Giant teases putting Luger through a table, but Luger powers back. The Dungeon make the save for the Giant. Luger then does a run in on commentary. He says the Giant can feel pain, and Luger's gonna give it to him.
Meanwhile, in the world of entertainment, the Nasty Boys made Dennis Rodman an official Nasty Boy and Kevin Greene appeared on Jay Leno. Leno christened him Kevin "Shallow Grave" Greene in a brutally unfunny segment.
In what should have probably been business picking up, Steven Regal destroys a debuting Billy Kidman. Regal picks Kidman apart but Kidman has a babyface comeback. He goes up top for the 450° Splash, whiffs it, eats a Regalplex into a Boston crab. Kidman is forced to tap. Sting then jumps Regal and immediately runs off.
The Nasty Boys completely suck and they're facing, guess who, Public Enemy! Again! Its a boring brawl, per usual, and it feels like it never ends. How can they possibly do this match again. Sags piledrives Grunge, who no sells it, for essentially no reason. Rocco leaves the ring to get plunder. This match is plodding. Grunge hits Saggs with a trash can and the match gets thrown out as a disqualification. This. Sucks.
Last, but certainly not least, is our newly-made Tag Team Title match. Eric lets us know that Desperado Joe Gomez is still alive, but has "broken knees." Lex runs wild on Flair and the crowd loves Lex. Really the entire match is the faces running wild. Luger hits an enormous, very impressive, stalled vertical suplex. On commentary, Heenan buries the pay-per-view and Eric lets us know about the advent of Nitro Parties. Send WCW a picture of your Nitro Viewing party and maybe, if its TV-appropriate, it'll get shown on a broadcast of Monday Nitro! Arn gets whipped into the corner by Sting but he just stops running before he hits the turnbuckle. He taps the side of his head like he's too smart. He's so smart he has ignored the laws of wrestling physics. Sting chops him down anyway. Flair goes and gets a folding chair but Arn quickly talks him out of using it. We cut to a commercial break, but when we come back the faces are still in control. Flair almost takes control off a whiffed Stinger Splash but Sting powers back regardless. Superplex on Flair from Sting, AA breaks up the pin. Arn finally gets tagged back in and the heels take over. Arn hits an amazing, beautiful spinebuster on Sting for two. He tries pinning him again, but Lex makes the save. He tries pinning him a third time, off just one spinebuster! but Sting powers out and bridges out of the pin. Flair tags in, tries out a vertical suplex but throws his back out in the process, dropping Sting. Sting tries an O'Connor roll, Anderson saves. Sting rolls Flair up and gets a visual pin, though the ref's back is turned. Flair reveres it into his own pin attempt. Sting powers out but Anderson beats him back down. Sting lowblows AA and makes the tag to Lex. Lex runs wild on the heels again, clearing house. He powerslams Flair for two then dumps both the heels out of the ring. The Giant then runs in, DQ finish, Lex gets beat down. Scott Steiner runs down and he and Sting make the save, wielding chairs. The Giant backs down as the crowd chants "Luger!" The Giant grabs a mic, calls out Luger, says the match at the Great American Bash is No Disqualification! Heenan. on commentary, starts freaking out about Savage. He screams "I wear glasses!" and throws a temper tantrum, leaving the commentary table. As Eric begins to sign the show off, Razor appears again. Eric demands, "Where's the big surprise." Razor gestured behind Eric as Diesel, yes the Diesel appears. "This is where the big boys play? Note the adjective: Play. We're not here to play." Nitro's "about as interesting as Marge Schott reading excerpts from Mein Kampf!" Diesel drops some real knowledge bombs on Eric. He says, they've got two out of their three guys, whereas WCW only has zero. Where's Hogan, asks Diesel. Where's Savage? Eric says he'll get his three guys at Great American Bash. Razor says, "Hey big man, I say me and you, we'll be at the Bash. We'll see if these punks wanna fight." Eric tells the production crew to end the show.
Brother Count: Zero, but a surprising amount of "Mang"s.
American Males Memorial Buff Bagwell Sighting: Not Enough of the Stuff.
The Here Comes A New Challenger Watch: Billy Kidman was trained by Afa Anoa'i of the famous Anoa'i wrestling family. Kidman goes on to be something, including an FCW trainer, but here's his first job on Nitro.
Joe Gomez is a perpetual WCW hanger-on. He was in the company in the pre-Nitro 90s and holds wins over Flair and Sid. He and the Renegade are kind of inexorably linked now and forever. The Renegade and Joe Gomez has a certain ring to it.
Diesel is just some enormous guy famous for being an enormous guy, a bad wrestler, and good at politics. That's basically it. He was trained by WCW referee Nick Patrick's dad so that's something.
Broski of the Week: There is a couple who, no lie, look exactly like Jan and Wayne Skylar. Overly tanned, matching tracksuits, looking like Tim and Eric. Everything.
Great American Bash:
Lex Luger vs The Giant for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, No DQ
Arn Anderson & Ric Flair w/ Bobby "The Brain" Heenan vs Mongo McMichael & Kevin Greene w/ Macho Man Randy Savage
Rey Mysterio Jr vs Dean Malenko
Chris Benoit vs Taskmaster Kevin Sullivan, Falls Count Anywhere
Steven Regal vs The Man They Call Sting
The Steiners vs Fire & Ice
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