WCW Monday Nitro (May 20, 1996)

Original Airdate: May 20, 1996  

From Monroe, Louisiana; Your Hosts are Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan

The Steiner Brothers v Fire & Ice: Scott Steiner and Ice Train start, measuring each other with power moves in the early going. Scott hits a clothesline for two, but runs into Train while trying an avalanche, and gets drilled with a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Scott fires back with an overhead suplex, and both guys decide to tag out. Scott Norton unloads in the corner, and uses a clothesline to put Rick Steiner down for a 2^nd rope flying splash. Shoulderblock and a pair of clotheslines follow, but a third misses, allowing Rick to German suplex him, then hits a Steinerline for two. Tag to brother Scott for a dragon suplex, and he tosses Norton to the outside, diving after him with a flying axehandle! Back in, Steiner tries to keep it going, but runs into a Samoan drop for two as they criss cross, and Train tags back in. Scott fights him off with a northern lights suplex to allow the tag to Rick, but he and Train collide during a criss cross for a double knockout. That brings Norton in to bash Rick with a double team shoulderblock, so Scott comes in to save, and Roseanne Barr the door! Things don't take long to spill to the outside, and it's a double countout at 5:30. Another fun power match between these two teams, more fully developed than the one from April. ** ¾

Ric Flair v Eddie Guerrero: Flair is once again a human billboard for Sprite this week, as he was for much of 1996. Guerrero dominates on the mat as they feel each other out, and even holds his own with Ric when the Nature Boy tries to turn it into a chopfest. For those who say I'm too verbose with my play-by-play, that's the first four minutes condensed into a single sentence. Though the efficiency may have been negated by the addition of a sentence explaining it. And then a sentence explaining the explanation. And then... you know what, let's stop. Anyway, Eddie manages a backdrop and a dropkick to send Flair over the top, so Ric grabs a chair, but the referee won't let him bring it in, so Flair settles for stalling in the aisle instead. Guerrero frustrates him by leading him through a chase and mocking his strut, and he unloads on Ric with chops until Flair flops. Ric goes to the eyes to buy time, allowing him to get Guerrero down in a chinlock, but Eddie escapes, and shoulderblocks the Nature Boy down. Pair of clotheslines lead to a flying sunset flip for two, and Ric is begging off. Guerrero shows no mercy with a ten-punch count, but Flair shakes him off with an inverted atomic drop, and he adds an elbowdrop for two. Kneedrop weakens Guerrero enough for Flair to unload with chops, but Eddie keeps slugging back at him, making Ric works for it. Flair tries a hiptoss, but Guerrero counters with a backslide for two, and a small package is worth two. Ric fights him off with a side suplex, but the Figure Four is countered with another small package for two, so a frustrated Flair cracks him with a chop. Kneelift, but Guerrero dodges, putting Flair on his ass for Eddie to put in his own figure four! Flair makes the ropes and bails, so Eddie dives after him with a flying bodypress, but Ric sidesteps, and Guerrero crashes into the guardrail. That allows Flair a vertical suplex on the floor, but Eddie beats the count in, so Ric gives him a hanging version of that vertical suplex for two. Another side suplex, but Guerrero counters with a rollup for two, and throws a bodypress for two. He damages his knee on the landing, but powers through as he unloads with chops, and corner whips Flair out to the floor. Guerrero hustles him back in for a slingshot sunset flip, but Ric blocks, and goes back to the chops - only for Eddie to poke him in the eyes, and hit a tornado DDT for two! Ropewalk rana and a bodyslam set up the Flying Frogsplash, but he aggravates the knee on the landing, and can't cover! Of course Flair is ready to capitalize, and despite his best efforts to block, the Figure Four finishes Eddie off at 19:04. This took a few minutes to get off the ground, but man was it great once it got going! Great psychology throughout here. Afterwards, Flair retreats to the announce table with his women, where he not only notes that he's teaching Randy Savage's wife a "new way of life," but that Steve McMichael's wife follows him around like he "owes her money." Well, he'd know. Flair is just great here, killing it in the ring and on the mic. Oh, and since he's taking McMichael's place as a husband, he might as well take his place as a commentator too, deciding to sit in for the rest of the night. We never really got much of Ric as a guest commentator over the years. You'd think, considering how great of a talker he was/is, he'd get that gig more often, or become a full time broadcaster after retirement. Of course, they micromanage their announcers so much nowadays that it would probably be a disappointment anyway. *** ¼

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Lex Luger and Sting v The Faces of Fear: That tag belt design is really underrated. Luger and Meng start, and Lex immediately starts throwing shoulderblocks, but ends up getting taken down with a drop-toehold. Lex responds with a powerslam for two, so Meng fires back with a side suplex, and passes to Barbarian. Barbarian misses an elbowdrop, allowing the tag to Sting for a test-of-strength, but Meng comes in to double team. Sting manages to fight them both off, and he hugs Barbarian like a bear, but misses a dropkick. That allows Meng to put him in a Boston crab, but he can't get it properly applied, so he just uses a headbutt drop instead. The challengers cut the ring in half on Sting, including a badass superplex from Barbarian, and a ridiculously cool stereo flying headbutt, but it all only gets two. They keep working the champ over, but he manages to dive OVER Barbarian to get the tag to Lex, and Luger's a house of fire - Roseanne Barr the door! Barbarian looks to capitalize on Sting's fatigue with another superplex, but Lex shoves him off the top rope to prevent it, and Sting leaps with a flying splash! He's too battered to cover, however, so Lex slides in and hooks the leg himself to retain at 9:51. A little slow at points, but lots of fun stuff in here. **

Randy Savage is hanging out outside of the building, where police are blocking the door to prevent him from getting in. Yeah, that seems like a fire hazard

Glacier teaser. I get that they were going for the mysterious thing, but these told you less than nothing. I mean, the Mankind vignettes that were airing a few months before this were also mysterious and cryptic, but at least they got mileage out of them

Diamond Dallas Page v Brad Armstrong: Page really stole a lot from everyone, didn't he? The jealous boyfriend thing from Randy Savage, the pre-match jewelry removal thing from Razor Ramon. But hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the best, right? Brad manages to avoid some cheap shots early, and he holds his own trading off with DDP on the mat before managing a dropkick. He loses focus and gets his throat snapped across the top rope while looking for a follow-up, however, allowing Page to turn the tide. He grounds Armstrong in a chinlock, but Brad escapes, and hooks a backslide for two, so Dallas clotheslines him for two. Page quickly follows up in the corner to keep control, but misses a second charge, allowing Brad an inverted atomic drop, followed by a series of turnbuckle smashes. Snapmare gets two, and a flying bodypress is worth two - only for Page to drop him with the Diamond Cutter before Armstrong can keep coming, scoring three at 6:36. Not much to this one. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund comes out so Page can gloat about winning BattleBowl last night at Slamboree, but Gene informs him that the Championship Committee reviewed the footage of a controversial near elimination during the battle royal, and though the referee's decision is final and Page will stand as the winner of the match, they have decided that he won't get the promised title shot at the Great American Bash. I like how economical things were in this era, as the whole interview segment was all of two minutes. Just right to the point, advance the storyline, develop the characters, and move on. ½*

WCW World Title Match: Giant v Arn Anderson: Arn stupidly tries a waistlock at the bell, but that doesn't go well for him. He tries sticking and moving instead, but Giant is so big that Arn can't do much with him beyond that, and the challenger takes a bodyslam. Giant adds a pair of corner whips and a backdrop to send the Enforcer bailing, but he manages to crotch Giant on the top rope on the way back in, and capitalizes with a series of 2^nd rope flying axehandles to bring the champion to his knees. Arn tries to DDT him from that position, but Giant powers into a Chokeslam to retain at 3:41. They didn't have much time to work with here, but it didn't seem to really be going anywhere anyway. DUD

BUExperience: Though still outside of their regular timeslot and thus not head-to-head with the WWF, WCW managed to beat RAW’s ratings for the first time in over a month with this 90-minute episode. They’ve really found a good groove since Hulk Hogan went on hiatus, and even without the nWo coming into play, I’d bet the promotion probably would have been pretty interesting and competitive for the rest of 1996 – though they also probably wouldn’t have reached the record heights that they did. Regardless, a much better show than the shitty go-home RAW episode this week.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	5/20/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.3	3.1
Total Wins	16	15
Win Streak		1
Better Show (as of 5/20)	8	22