Original Airdate: July 29, 1996
From
Over the weekend, the Outsiders set Sting up for an attack outside of an arena, jumping him while he's loading his car up. He kinda had it coming for wearing those shorts, though. Great bit here, with the sketchy camcorder footage giving it a great bit of added realism
Jim Duggan v Mike Enos: Enos attacks before the bell, but Duggan reverses a cross corner whip, and sends Mike over the top with a clothesline. Mike throws a tantrum out there (a 4.6/10 on the Alexa Bliss scale), but hustles back in, and dodges a charge to send Duggan over the top. Mike follows for a bodyslam on the floor out there, and they take it back inside, where Enos hits an avalanche. Duggan forgets to sell it, so Mike pounds him down, and hits a legdrop to set up a chinlock. We're less than three minutes into this thing, and I'm already anxious for them to go home. Duggan fights out of the hold, but kills my hope when he misses a charge, and Enos goes back to the chinlock. Is that a young Colin Hanks in the front row? I know it isn't, but I'm struggling for reasons to stay awake here, and Potential Hanks is the best I've got. Duggan escapes the hold again, and they collide for a double knockout, leading to a Hacksaw comeback. Sunset flip gets two, and oh fuck off, Enos cuts him off. Mike with a neckbreaker for two, and a vertical suplex sets up a flying splash, but Jim moves! Hacksaw finally mounts a comeback for real, but Enos tries cutting him off again, so Jim wraps his fist in tape, and knocks Mike out for the pin at 7:27. See, I thought that was a wrestling ring, but it was actually a bo-ring. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund comes out to get Hacksaw's take on the New World Order, and apparently he doesn't like them. In fact, he feels personally betrayed by Hulk Hogan's betrayal, and fuck it if he doesn't cut a pretty great little promo here. He's actually not bad when he's showing some passion and humanity instead of just shouting 'hooo' and 'tough guy' while sticking his tongue out. Who knew? ¼*
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, and Steve McMichael v Lex Luger, Sting, and Randy Savage: The babyfaces charge in, and we've got a big brawl all over ringside before the bell can even sound! The dust finally settles on Benoit and Sting to start, and the Stinger dominates him, so Chris passes to Ric. The crowd wants Savage, so Flair attacks him before he can tag in, but that earns him a corner whip from Sting, and Flair flips to the outside - where Randy is ready and waiting! They brawl over Flair's VIP table, and Randy rolls him in for Sting to hit with a backdrop. Ric tries going to the eyes, but it backfires when Sting falls into a tag to Savage, and man, the crowd is sure hot for the Macho Man! Just shows how big the WWF was in the 80s, as anyone from that era is over huge with all these casuals. Flair makes Savage chase him all the way up the aisle, but Macho drags him back, so Ric passes to McMichael. Savage doesn't give a shit about Mongo though, and let's Lex have him. They measure each other some, and poor Mongo screws up bouncing off of the ropes, taking a nasty spill out of the ring when he falls through them. He's lucky he didn't break something there. Steve wisely passes to Ric, but Lex no-sells some chops, and press-slams him. Flair bails to the apron, but Luger is on him with a hanging vertical suplex back in for two, so Ric goes to the eyes, and passes to Benoit. The Crippler unloads in the corner, so a fired up Savage comes in without a tag to buy Luger some time, but the Horsemen gang up to prevent him from recovering. Everyone is showing a lot more fire this week than they did in this same match (minus Flair) last week. They try cutting the ring in half, but Lex fights Flair off for the tag to Sting, and he takes the Nature Boy upstairs for a vertical superplex for two! Ric tries dumping him, but Sting flies back with a slingshot sunset flip - only for Ric to tag McMichael while selling the move. That allows Steve to get the jump on the Stinger, and he hits a corner clothesline, followed by a backbreaker. The Horsemen go to work, with Benoit hitting a backelbow for two, and a side suplex for two. Back to Flair for chops, but Sting gets fired up, so Ric tries to take it to the mat. That leads to a reversal sequence, and Sting hooks a backslide for two, so Ric goes low. Figure Four, but Sting reverses, and they end up in the ropes to break it up. Flair tries again, but Sting counters with a cradle for two, so Benoit tags in to tear up the leg proper. Snap suplex gets two, so he tries an elevated crab, but Luger runs in to break the hold. Ric tags in before Sting can tag, however, and hits a vertical suplex, as a panicked Jimmy Hart runs out yelling about some kind of emergency backstage. The announcers assume it's some sort of plot, and everyone ignores him as Sting makes a comeback, and tags Lex. Luger tears into Flair, but Hart manages to get everyone in the match to follow him backstage, resulting in a double countout at 13:23. Backstage, it seems the cause of the commotion is the Outsiders, armed with bats, and beating down the American Males - which may be the first and only time the Males have caused a commotion of any sort. Before the guys in the match can make it back there, Rey Mysterio Jr is on the scene, and he dives off a production truck, but Kevin Nash catches him, and chucks him into the side of the trailer like a lawn dart. I remember seeing that back in 1996, and thinking it was the craziest shit ever. They get into their limos to leave just as the guys finally make it back there, but not before Randy Savage dives onto the back - trying to get in through the sunroof as the car screeches around the corner! This is just wild, wild stuff! With the nWo gone, we're left with everyone (regardless of face/heel allegiances) working together to help the various victims of the assault, which include Arn Anderson as well. This whole thing is really well done, and realistic. Damn good match before the non-finish, too. ***
That segment runs for well over ten minutes, until we're at the top of the hour, and we cut back to the arena for the first time since the commotion started for the switch to the Bischoff/Heenan team. Bobby is so nervous about what happened that he refuses to even stay in the area unless someone can guarantee his safety, which Eric says he cannot do at this point, so Heenan walks off. Great bit here, with Bobby playing it for maximum realism by talking about his history of neck injuries, and how no job is worth being paralyzed for. So, with Bobby out, Tony and Larry stay on to call the rest of the show with Eric. Hopefully they got overtime pay for that. We then go backstage again, where EMTs are now on the scene, and leading the various injured wrestlers into ambulances. The big talk now is that Mysterio claimed that they were jumped by four guys, not three, and so apparently there's a fourth man somewhere. Even watching this now, knowing all the twists and turns in advance, it still feels riveting. And that's not often the case with old wrestling angles. Unlike, say, film, which you can watch again and again and be riveted, wrestling angles tend to lose that once you're outside of the moment. This one doesn't, though. This all aired opposite the start of RAW too, and I think this is one of the only times I didn't flip over at the start of the other show. Usually, I would abandon WCW once the WWF show started, but not this time
The Steiner Brothers v High Voltage: Voltage are subs for the American Males, and are all pumped up about it, too. Way to sell the solidarity, guys. The Steiner's, meanwhile, look properly dejected and broken. Scott Steiner starts with Kenny Kaos, as Rick Steiner hangs out on the floor, looking too upset to get involved yet. Scott has to give him a pep talk WHILE throwing Kaos around, which tells you everything you need to know about High Voltage. Though, fuck it, I thought they were cool JTTS guys as a kid. Scott finally convinces Rick to tag in, but he's still too distracted by what happened backstage, and Kaos is able to use it against him. Over to Robbie Rage for a stereo dropkicks, followed by stereo elbowdrops. Tandem vertical suplex follows, as High Voltage try to put this huge upset away. Robbie hits a bodyslam to set up a flying shoulderblock for two, but Kenny gets caught in a powerslam while trying his own dive, and Scott gets the tag back in. Rage eats a tilt-a-whirl slam and a tigerbomb, and Rick tags back in to give him an inverted powerslam into the turnbuckles. Steinerline follows, and Scott wraps it up with the Screwdriver at 4:39. Not bad, and nicely integrated the big angle into the performance. This aired opposite the Vader/Mero match on RAW, and while that was technically a better match, this had a really hot angle surrounding it. Call it a push. * ¼
Backstage, the carnage has finally been cleaned up, as the last ambulance pulls out of the complex
Eddie Guerrero v Big Bubba Rogers: Bubba is filling in for Rey Mysterio Jr, who was supposed to be defending the Cruiserweight title here. Thankfully, he doesn't look like he's losing his mind with excitement, though. Bubba offers to wrestle the match on his knees to make it fair, in a funny bit. He knocks Eddie around at the bell, but Guerrero bounces back after getting tossed, and sends Bubba to the outside with a dropkick. He looks to follow up with a dive, but has second thoughts, and let's Bubba get back in without incident. That backfires when
The nWo airs a paid announcement, with all three known members cutting various promos, in an exercise in style over substance. Not much said, but man, these looked so cool, and rebellious. It was also a the perfect way to give them promo time without giving them promo time, before they eventually made them a regular part of the show later. This aired opposite a segment on Mark Henry power lifting, and a Goldust/Mankind boiler room segment on RAW, and I'll give WCW the edge here
We take a look back at the nWo attack from earlier
WCW World Title Match: Giant v Greg Valentine: Valentine lucked into this as a sub for Arn Anderson. Giant powers him around at the bell, so Greg goes to the eyes, and starts chopping. He throws a series of clotheslines, but can't get Giant down, and gets shoved into the corner for a bootchoke. Giant with a cross corner whip, but a charge misses, and Valentine hustles to the top for a flying axehandle. He still can't put the champ down, so he climbs again, but gets chokeslammed down this time. Giant adds another chokeslam for good measure, and Valentine's done at 1:42. Afterwards, Okerlund comes out to interview the champ, and he cuts a good promo that features his always funny Hogan impression. Like most everyone tonight, he's at his best because he's actually showing emotion and humanity, instead of acting like a cartoon character. This aired opposite the Undertaker/Austin main event on RAW, and I'd call it a push. Maybe a slight edge for WCW. ¼*
BUExperience: A win for Nitro this week on the strength of the groundbreaking nWo angle (groundbreaking both in its presentation and how it affected the rest of the broadcast), as well as the really fun six-man tag that led into it.
Monday
Night Wars Rating Chart
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|
7/29/96
|
|
|
Show
|
RAW
|
Nitro
|
|
Rating
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2.1
|
3.1
|
|
Total Wins
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17
|
24
|
|
Win Streak
|
|
7
|
|
Better Show (as of 7/29)
|
10
|
30
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