WCW Monday Nitro (September 2, 1996)

Original Airdate: September 2, 1996  

From Chattanooga, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko (hour one); Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan (hour two)

Diamond Dallas Page v Alex Wright: Page tries working a wristlock to start, but Wright whips him into the ropes for a spinheel kick, and sends Dallas over the top with a clothesline. Alex dives after him with a tope suicida, and a slingshot splash gets two on the way back in. Criss cross sees Alex try a bodypress, but DDP ducks, and Wright wipes out in the ropes. Page uses a tilt-a-whirl slam on him for two, and a sitout powerbomb is worth two. Diamond Cutter, but Wright blocks, and drops him with a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Alex unloads in the corner, but gets caught with the Cutter as he charges, and he's out at 3:44. Page's act is getting more over every week, especially the Diamond Cutter. The pop for it is getting hard to ignore. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund comes out to accuse referee Nick Patrick of counting too slow during the match. Which he didn't, especially. Also, really, in front of everyone? No wonder Patrick thinks the media is out to make him look bad. * ¾

Get your WCW Monday Nitro stone wash denim shirt for only $40! You'll be the coolest kid at the party! Assuming the party in question is a dinner party your parents are hosting, and you're the only kid there

Backstage, Colonel Robert Parker comes bearing gifts for Sister Sherri, in the form of various leather items. Well, he certainly knows his woman

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Harlem Heat v Greg Valentine and Buddy Valentino: I know he was well past his prime, but you'd think they'd Greg Valentine would still have enough name value to avoid becoming an enchantment guy. Guess not. Booker T and Valentine start off, as Ted DiBiase makes his way through the stands, distracting the crowd and the announcers. Greg hits Booker with a backelbow for two, and goes right to a chinlock, as DiBiase gets to his ringside seat. Meanwhile, Booker escapes the hold, but Valentine ducks a kick, and elbowsmashes him down for two. Greg with a backbreaker, and he passes to Buddy, but he quickly gets into trouble. Tag to Stevie Ray, but Buddy manages a dropkick, so Booker takes a cheap shot from the apron, as the announcers hype Halloween Havoc. You know, the pay per view AFTER Fall Brawl. The Heat casually work Buddy over, and Booker finishes with the Harlem Hangover at 3:53. Afterwards, Okerlund comes out to talk to the champions, and they're basically saying the same thing I'm thinking: they already beat the Nasty Boys a bunch of times, so why do they have to fight them again? But before they can board that train of thought, the Nasties run out for a sneak attack, and leave the Heat laying. ¼*

Glacier teaser. For those keeping track, the first Glacier teaser on Nitro aired way back on the April 29 show. We're now into September

Dean Malenko v Chris Jericho: Mike Tenay sits in on commentary for this one. Dean keeps trying for a takedown early on, but Jericho is ready with counters. They trade off as they feel each other out, and a big criss cross sees Chris use a leg-feed corkscrew kick, and a spinkick. More kicks follow, but this time Dean is ready with a suplex to stop that effort, and he drops Jericho with a brainbuster for two. Dean snapmares him into a chinlock as Ted DiBiase walks back up into the stands, so I guess he's not a fan of the style. Malenko shifts to a headscissors, but Jericho powers to a vertical base, and uses an electric chair to break. Dean goes to the eyes to buy time, allowing him a butterfly suplex for two, and it's back to the mat in an octopus hold. Jericho fights to a vertical base, so Dean shifts to an abdominal stretch instead, and uses the ropes for leverage. Jericho manages a hiptoss to escape, but Dean drops him into the turnbuckles before he can follow up, and uses a springboard bulldog for two. Bodypress sends both tumbling over the top, but Jericho wins a slugfest on the apron, and uses a baseball slide, followed by a springboard bodypress on the floor! Chris with a missile dropkick for two on the way back in, but Malenko reverses a tombstone for two. Corner whip, but Jericho dodges the follow-up charge, and uses a bridging German suplex for two. Spinheel kick connects, but Malenko blocks another suplex, and a reversal sequence ends in Jericho using a victory cradle at 9:02! Couldn't quite find that next gear, but good motoring. ***

Music video highlighting WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr and Fall Brawl challenger Super Calo

Giant v Brad Armstrong: Brad tries sticking and moving to start, but runs into trouble once Giant gets his hands on him. Brad (kinda stupidly) tries a waistlock, but Giant easily powers out of that foolishness, and smacks Armstrong around. Giant with a bootchoke in the corner, as we cut to the outside of the arena, where a black limousine is pulling up. Ah, the black limousine. Official sponsor of the Monday Night Wars. Or maybe the other way around. Seriously, the WWF and WCW probably helped keep a lot of those companies in business during those years. Giant continues his slow squash, until Brad manages to snap his throat across the top rope from the apron, and he uses a missile dropkick. Into the corner, but Giant is ready with a Chokeslam at 3:47. Big pop for that, too. DUD

We get a new black-and-white nWo paid promo spot, this time with Hollywood Hulk Hogan. How many takes do you think they needed before they got that 'kick the globe at the camera' spot in the can? I like how Hogan adds '-HH' to the end of his graffiti. Not the same without a 'much love,' though

Randy Savage v Ron Studd: Studd is tall, but totally unimpressive. Like, yeah, he's tall, but he doesn't look particularly imposing, or even 'big.' Ron chucks him across the ring at the bell, and whips Macho around, as we spot the nWo getting out of the black limo outside. Studd with a bodyslam for two, but he wastes time arguing the count, and Savage is able to dump him to the outside for a flying axehandle. Back in, Macho uses his own bodyslam to set up the Flying Elbowdrop for the pin at 2:41. And Studd even kicks out right at three! Shitty, but inoffensive. Afterwards, Gene comes out so they can hype up Macho's calendar - first facing Giant at Fall Brawl, and then Hollywood Hogan at Halloween Havoc. Yeah, that's great, but what happens if Giant beats him at Fall Brawl? Does Savage still get the title shot? I wish they'd add a little intrigue there, instead of treating the Giant match like a pit stop on the way to Havoc. DUD

The Four Horsemen run out to go after the nWo, but find their limo empty. Yeah, no shit. I mean, we literally JUST SAW THEM LEAVING IT!

Fall Brawl ad

The Steiner Brothers v Sting and Lex Luger: Well, this should be good. Rick Steiner starts with Luger, and they measure each other a bit. Lex gives him a shove, so Rick gives him a shove back, and... the bell rings at 0:29? Ah, seems that Luger bumped into referee Nick Patrick there, and he's been disqualified. You'd think Lex would have learned to keep his distance from the referees by now. The Steiner's don't want the win that way, of course, and everyone loses their shit on him until he bails up the aisle. Just an angle, but it was good stuff. I really like all the creative little situations they're putting Patrick in every week, as they slowly develop the angle. DUD

Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and Steve McMichael v Kevin Sullivan, Big Bubba Rogers, Meng, and Barbarian: McMichael and Sullivan start, and Steve messes up walking at one point. Kevin takes him down for a double stomp, but Steve no-sells, and tries his own off the middle rope, but Kevin moves. Tag to Bubba (already ready for the next Hog Wild in his Sturgis shirt), but he misses a straddling ropechoke, and they spill to the outside. Mongo with a inverted atomic drop out there, and he uses a backdrop on the way back in. Why would they let Mongo start this one? You don't start with the dude that needs the most smoke and mirrors. Over to Benoit, but he gets trapped in the Dungeon of Doom corner, and Barbarian tags in. Chris dodges a charge from him, and unloads a German suplex, but Sullivan crotches him on the top as he goes for a dive. That allows Barbarian to try a superplex, but Benoit headbutts him off, and hits the flying headbutt for two. Tags to Flair and Meng next, as we cut to the back, where Luger and Sting are chasing Nick Patrick out of the building. Patrick dives into the nWo limousine to get away from them, and the limo speeds off, so Sting and Luger steal a nearby police car, and give chase! Yeah, pretty sure that's not going to work out too well for them in the long run. "Well, your honor, you see, he disqualified us in a match with the Steiner Brothers. We HAD to go after him!" Back in the ring, the crowd is hot for Flair's every move as he trades off with Meng, and Arn tags in to drop Meng with a DDT for two. Tag back to Barbarian, and he nails Arn with an elbowdrop, then hangs him in a tree of woe for Sullivan to abuse. The Dungeon work Anderson over, as the announcers ignore the match to talk about the Sting/Luger/Patrick situation. Normally I hate that, but you can't really fault them here. I mean, the guys STOLE A POLICE CAR! That's hard to ignore. Arn gets loose long enough to tag Benoit, and he comes in hot for Sullivan, but gets caught in the wrong part of town, and ganged up on. The Dungeon cut the ring in half on Benoit, as the announcers discuss a Muhammad Ali documentary, or 'Cashews Clay,' according to the Network's closed captioning. That's tremendous. Funny bit, as Benoit catches Meng with a bodypress during a criss cross, and they cut it so close with the count that the poor referee basically dives to shove Benoit off at two to avoid an accidental pin. It was subtle, but there if you look for it. And they call Nick Patrick a crook! The Faces of Fear go for the kill with stereo dives from opposite corners, but Benoit dodges, and it's hot tag Flair - Roseanne Barr the door! Ric gets Sullivan in the Figure Four while everyone brawls, as Benoit and Woman get into some kind of shouting match on the outside as well. Sullivan actually gets pinned in the hold at 15:40, but that kind of gets glossed over though, as here come the nWo (now in those snazzy t-shirts)! I'm surprised we got an actual finish there before the run-in. So the nWo beat down all eight guys with relative ease, until Giant runs out to back up his Dungeon pals... only to turn on them, and join the nWo! That draws Savage out with a chair to try and help, but he gets overwhelmed as well, and the beat down continues. This is where the nWo concept officially went off the rails for me, personally. It was still a hot angle, but it kinda jumped the shark once Giant joined, and it went from ex-WWF guys invading to something else. Of course, it wasn't originally supposed to be Giant at all, but they'd already promised a fifth guy for this week, and so the were left holding the bag after their original plans for Davey Boy Smith or Sean Waltman fell through. Smith would have been a pretty cool reveal, considering how recently he’d been on WWF TV. As for the match itself, I didn't find it especially engaging, but they were all working hard here, with non-stop action, and no resting. And after they get done beating down half of WCW, the nWo take over the announce position to cut their promo, with Giant revealing that DiBiase brokered the deal for him to join the nWo, with promises of money and power. It's actually a good promo, but the WCW guys return to go after them before he can finish, and it's another big brawl to close the hour, with Giant just kinda standing in the middle of all the chaos and cutting his promo like nothing else is going on. **

BUExperience: In hindsight the Giant reveal was kind of a mess from a storytelling standpoint, but in the moment it was really shocking, and came off very well. Another hot episode this week, as the nWo angle continues to get over huge, with all of the stuff that will soon become cliché still fresh and exciting.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	9/2/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	n/a	4.3
Total Wins	17	27
Win Streak		10
Better Show (as of 9/2)	11	32