WCW Monday Nitro (September 18, 1995)

Original Airdate: September 18, 1995

From Johnson City, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Steve McMichael, and Bobby Heenan

Backstage, Taskmaster and The Giant arrive in an ambulance, and threaten Hulk Hogan. Were there no cabs? This is pretty much the start of Giant's career here, and they're still promoting him as the son of Andre the Giant here - something they thankfully dropped pretty quickly

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Harlem Heat v The American Males: This is scheduled as the Males faced the Blue Bloods, but Harlem Heat are coming off the high of their title win the night before, and decide to beat up the Blue Bloods so they can have the match instead. Well, that's just rude. And, if you've ever seen a wrestling show before, you can probably guess what happens next. Brawl to start, and the Males actually hold their own until the referee breaks it up. We start with Stevie Ray and Scotty Riggs, and Scotty uses his speed advantage to plant a dropkick on him. It's not enough to take him down, however, so Bagwell comes in for a tandem version for two. He adds a flying axehandle, but quickly falls prey to a sidewalk slam, and Booker T tags in with a powerslam. Tag back to Riggs, but he quickly walks into a cheapshot, and the Heat cut the ring in half. You know, considering he's only, like, four months removed from the gig, they should have packaged Riggs with Lex Luger instead, and called them The Flagbearers. I can practically hear the wallets opening, and the panties dropping. Booker misses a somersault legdrop to allow the tag to Bagwell, and he's a house of arson! Many dropkicks are thrown, so Sherri tries to interfere, but Robert Parker shows up to flirt with her, and the distraction allows Bagwell to bodypress Booker for the belts at 4:40. This aired opposite the Ramon/Kid match on RAW, and while that was a better match with a better angle, surprise title switches are always good for spiking interest. Still, I'd have to give the edge to the WWF there. *

Gene Okerlund brings Ric Flair down for an in-ring interview, coming off his (disappointing) match with Arn Anderson at Fall Brawl the night before. Flair's beef with Anderson now is that he brought an outsider like Brian Pillman into their family squabble

Paul Orndorff v Johnny B. Badd: Orndorff stomps him down to start, but the referee steps in when he starts choking, and Badd manages to reverse a cross corner whip, and hiptoss him. Bodyslam sets up a super high elevation flying splash, but Paul lifts his boot to block (that looked silly, because Badd basically threw a flying axehandle on a horizontal opponent, thus giving away the block), then misses a regular splash too. Some people just never learn. Orndorff misses a flying splash of his own (was there a side bet going on here, or something?), and Johnny hits a kneelift. Series of punches put Paul on the outside, and Badd goes after him with a plancha. He hits a flying axehandle on the way back in for two, and backdrops his way out of a piledriver attempt. He tries his own piledriver, but Orndorff backdrops him, so Johnny turns it into a sunset flip - only for Paul to cradle the legs for the pin at 6:40. Decent stuff, and certainly better than the lame Superstars level tag match RAW was airing. *

Randy Savage recently filmed a cameo on Baywatch, and between takes, did bench presses on the beach with the cast - until the Taskmaster attacked him, until Ric Flair of all people makes the save. This was so stupid. Like, Savage was at least dressed in beachwear, why was Taskmaster wearing his ring gear and devil horns to a beach?

Following that, Gene Okerlund brings Randy Savage down for an in-ring interview to discuss the attack, as well as Savage's distrust of Lex Luger. Luger comes down to get in Macho's face about it, and though nothing comes of it, this was still way better than the Jean Pierre Lafitte squash RAW was airing opposite it

Yesterday, before Fall Brawl, Gene Okerlund was interviewing Hulk Hogan outside the arena (complete with an all-white group of obviously paid 'fans'), until The Giant showed up, and crushed the Hulkster's motorcycle with his monster truck - leaving Hogan throwing a tantrum that would make a five year old blush. This was, in a word, really-really-really-stupid. It was also painfully campy, and came off like a deleted scene from a cheaply made porno

Last night, at Fall Brawl, Giant attacked Hulk Hogan during the War Games main event

Ric Flair v Brian Pillman: Brian goes right at him, but gets trapped in the corner for some chops, and Ric dodges a dropkick, then tosses Pillman to the floor like a bag of trash. He follows him out with a flying axehandle (first he's saving Randy Savage on the beach, now he's stealing his offense too?), and adds some more chops out there. Pillman tries bailing up the aisle, but Flair drags him back - only to get his throat snapped across the top rope on the way back in. Brian unloads his own chops, but Ric manages a clothesline out of the corner - only to get dropkicked as he tries another flying axehandle. Good one, too. Brian wraps his arm around the post, and they spill out to the floor for a chopfest. Flair manages to drop him across the guardrail out there, so Brian goes after him with a slingshot sunset flip on the way back in, but Ric blocks with a closed fist. Ric goes to the top again, but this time Pillman manages to slam him off, and he heads up - no one home on a flying splash. Figure Four, but Pillman cradles him for two. Another chopfest, and Ric catches him with a side suplex into the Figure Four for the submission at 5:24. They were programmed opposite the Owen/Yoko versus Men on a Mission match over on RAW, and delivered a much more exciting, intense main event - though too short to actually be anything. * ¼

BUExperience: In terms of show quality, while superior to this weeks RAW, this was definitely a lot more toned down than the first two episodes. Still, the in-ring action and surprise title switch were better than anything RAW programmed opposite, though Nitro failed to retain their audience from the week before, losing to RAW by nearly a full point in their second competitive week.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	9/18/1995
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.7	1.9
Total Wins	2	0
Streak	2	n/a