WCW Monday Nitro (March 11, 1996)

Original Airdate: March 11, 1996

From Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Steve McMichael, and Bobby Heenan

Giant v Jim Duggan: Duggan tries a sneak attack, but even though he manages to railroad Giant into the corner, he's quickly shrugged off, and dumped over the top. Giant follows to ram Jim into the post, as some guys in the crowd work overtime to try getting a sign advertising a Brian Pillman hotline on camera, before they are inevitably descended on by security. Inside, Giant works a bearhug, and holy shit, Pillman himself is in the crowd! He tries jumping the railing, but gets dragged off by security, as Giant continues working the bearhug. That took me by complete surprise, because I honestly though Pillman was done with the promotion after SuperBrawl. I didn't realize he made so much as another appearance. Anyway, Duggan bites his way out of the bearhug, and dodges an avalanche, but the 3-point stance ends up sending Giant over the top. Giant heads back in and thumps Hacksaw, and a big boot leads to another bearhug. Oh, fuck off. Just finish up already. Duggan tries a headbutt to escape this time, but ends up knocking himself out, and he falls to the outside. Jim grabs some tape out there, and wraps his hand so he can nail Giant with taped fist punches on the way in, despite the referee being right there. No matter, as the referee does absolutely nothing about it, leaving it to poor Jimmy Hart to stand up for justice himself! That distracts Duggan, and Giant hits the Chokeslam at 6:25. Hey, that's fair. Duggan jumped him before the bell, illegally wrapped his fist in tape, AND went after his manager. He got what he deserved. Total shit match, though the Pillman cameo was an unexpected surprise. This ran opposite Vega/Austin on RAW, and I'd give the WWF the edge since they were putting on a much better match. DUD

The Road Warriors v The Steiner Brothers: The Steiner's are surprise replacements for the Nasty Boys here, riding out on motorcycles as they make their first WCW appearance since 1992. Big pop for them, too. And check out the mullet on Scott, damn! Clearly, he means business. In the front, at least. Hawk starts with Scott Steiner, and gets pounded in the corner, but reverses a hiptoss. That allows Hawk to unload with chops, but Scott counters a hiptoss with a belly-to-belly suplex, followed by a pump-handle slam. Into the corner, Scott tries a superplex, but Hawk blocks with some headbutts, and dives with a flying clothesline, then absolutely DRILLS Scotty with a big boot. Neckbreaker follows, but he telegraphs a backdrop, and eats a tigerbomb. Both men tag, and Animal hits a powerslam, followed by a standing dropkick. Bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop, but a whip into the ropes gets reversed, and Rick Steiner throws a pair of clotheslines to set up a German suplex. He adds a belly-to-belly superplex ahead of passing to Scott, who delivers an overhead suplex. Seeing guys this size just casually suplexing each other is awesome. Scott slams Animal in the corner to set up a tree of woe as the Brothers cut the ring in half, and Animal is in such a selly mood that he's even kind enough to sell a dropkick from Scott that misses by a nautical mile. Double knockout spot allows the hot tag to Hawk, and Roseanne Barr the door! Doomsday Device looks to finish Rick off, but Scott saves at two, allowing Rick to drop Hawk with a German suplex. The Brothers try their own version of the Device, but Animal stops them from executing, and he and Scott take turns hitting flying shoulderblocks. Scott tries the Frankensteiner, but Hawk saves Animal at one, so the Brothers give Hawk the old electric chair/flying bulldog combo. That should be it, but Animal whacks Rick with a weapon before they can cover, and Hawk steals the pin at 9:51. This is one of only two televised matches between these two teams (the other being Starrcade '89), and while neither quite lived up to the 'dream match' expectations that surrounded them, both were fun power matches. The Starrcade match suffered for being part of a lengthy one night tournament that saw both teams have to wrestle three matches, while this one was just a TV match without a resolution. Afterwards, Gene comes out to chat with the Steiner's, with Scott noting that they've been chasing the Warriors all over the world trying to get their hands on them. It's a damn shame we never got a proper pay per view rematch. Give Nitro the easy edge over RAW, which was airing a Lawler/Henry confrontation, a recap of a tag title tournament match from over the weekend, a WWF Store segment, the Goldust/Piper confrontation, a Godwinns squash, and clips of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels' training regimens for WrestleMania. Can't say the WWF didn't make the most of their time, though. ***

WCW Television Title Match: Lex Luger v Alex Wright: Luger is fresh off of winning the TV title from Johnny B. Badd over the weekend, freeing Badd up to jump to the WWF. Lex must have felt great triumphantly walking out with two title belts here, considering Sting had to basically beg the promotion to hire him only some seven months before this. Wright quickly dominates the champion, and works a hammerlock for a bit. Headscissors takedown and a dropkick put Luger on the outside, and Alex dives out after him with a tope suicida. Wright with a flying axehandle for two on the way back in, but he gets suckered in the corner, and Lex knocks him to the outside with a high knee. In, Luger drops him with a press-slam, but a corner whip backfires when Alex dives with a flying bodypress. He tries a leapfrog in the corner next, but Lex is ready with a nasty snake-eyes, only to get booted when he tries a charge. Alex mounts a comeback, hitting a leg lariat for two, and drilling the champion with a missile dropkick. Flying moonsault looks to finish, but Jimmy Hart runs out to trip him up, and Luger drops Wright across the top rope for the pin at 6:24. Wasn't bad, but felt like they weren't clicking. Give it the edge over the HHH squash and Billionaire Ted skit over on RAW, though. *

Six-Man Tag Team Lumberjack Strap Match: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Kevin Sullivan v Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and Booty Man: Think Elizabeth and Woman ever got sick of having Ric screech 'WHOOOO!' into their ears every two seconds, night after night? Hogan's shirt is already torn on the way to the ring, so you know he means business. Big brawl to start, which quickly spills to the outside, and results in lumberjacks Giant and Loch Ness brawling to the back. This is a Strap match only in the sense that the guys are armed with straps, but they're not actually connected at the wrist, or anything. And apparently tags aren't being enforced either, because it's just a big brawl. The lumberjacks apparently get as bored watching them slug it out as I do, because they brawl between themselves on the floor constantly. Oh, and they're also armed with straps to make things interesting. Flair tries to run away at one point, but Animal drags him back, and despite all the gimmicks in play here, there's really very little actual action. It's mostly all six guys trading punches and shots with the strap, while the announcers act like we're seeing a revolutionary four-star classic. And, of course, when it's Hogan's turn to get dumped to the outside, he's able to fight off six lumberjacks by himself. Duh. I'm surprised he settled for six, frankly. This all goes on until the obligatory Legdrop finish, which Ric eats at 6:29. Well you had to know that was coming. He got his job from Arn back last week, and there's no way Ric was getting away without a receipt too. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund comes out to get words with the heel team to build up the Doomsday Cage match for Uncensored, though it falls kind of flat considering they just got their asses kicked by those same guys two weeks straight. As stupid as this was, it was no worse than the RAW main event, with both matches relying heavily on chaos and multiple angles playing out over any actual coherent wrestling. Call the segments a push. DUD

BUExperience: I’d call Nitro the better show this go-around, though less because it was particularly great, and more because RAW was really weak, and relied on multiple squash matches. The Steiner’s making a surprise return and immediately knocking heads with the Road Warriors definitely pushes WCW over the top this week.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	3/11/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.9	3.2
Total Wins	10	12
Win Streak		2
Better Show (as of 3/11)	5	16