Original
Airdate: January 21, 1997
From
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby
Heenan
Opening WCW
Cruiserweight Title Match: Ultimo Dragon v Dean Malenko: Mike Tenay
provides guest commentary for this one. I always dug that WCW had different
rings (even different in size sometime, like the one on Worldwide), as opposed
to the uniform WWF rings. Feeling out process to start, as the announcers try
to make sense over why Dragon supposedly unified the Cruiserweight title with
the NJPW J-Crown at Starrcade... only to then lose the J-Crown to Jushin Liger
a few weeks later. Was that a case of one promotion getting cold feet on the
unification, or did they just want to bill it as a unification when it was
never meant to be anyway? Dean with a brainbuster, but Dragon escapes a hold on
the mat, and the challenger ends up on the outside. Dragon doesn't bother with
a dive after him, holding the high ground, and remembering that Malenko has to
beat him. And so Dean comes in and drills him with a side suplex, then goes to
the mat with a grapevine. Dragon starts to escape, so Dean shifts to a
half-crab, but Dragon starts to kick at him, gaining enough slack to make the
ropes. Dean stays on the leg with a kneebreaker, and he works a stump puller,
wearing Dragon down enough to try a cover for two. Dean dumps him to the
outside, and follows to bash the champion's leg into the guardrail, before
rolling him back inside for a figure four. Cross corner whip sets up a corner
clothesline, but Dragon reverses another cross corner whip, and nails the
challenger with a spinheel kick on the rebound. Dragon goes up, but Dean
follows him for a vertical superplex, though it knocks him silly as well, so no
cover. Dean with a victory cradle for two, and a reversal sequence ends in
Dragon countering a powerbomb with a rana into a cradle for two. Backdrop sends
Dean to the apron, so Dragon uses a springboard dropkick to knock him to the
outside, but Malenko dodges a plancha. He tries a whip into the rail, but
Dragon reverses, and dives with a springboard moonsault press into the aisle.
That leaves both guys in jeopardy of being counted out, and Dragon is in first,
but Malenko makes it as well. Dragon welcomes him with a vertical suplex to set
up a flying moonsault for two, and a rana off the top works, but Dragon lands
badly, so no cover. Tiger suplex, but Malenko counters to the Texas Cloverleaf,
so Dragon counters with a small package for two. Dean tries a powerbomb, but
Dragon lands on his feet, so Malenko decks him. Tigerbomb sets up the
Cloverleaf, so Sonny Onoo tries some interference, but Dean decks him, and then
slaps the hold on to win the title at 15:05. It should be noted that Dragon
submitted via tap out here, so it wasn't just Ken Shamrock's influence in the
WWF that popularized it in mainstream wrestling. Like the Starrcade match, this
was pretty low-key and conservative with the high spots, but I liked the
storytelling of this one much better. *** (Original rating: *** ¼)
Scotty Riggs v
Mike Enos:
Enos attacks from behind, but Riggs quickly fights him off, and a corner whip
sends Mike crashing over the top to the outside. Scotty dives after him with a
plancha, but a whip into the apron gets reversed, and Mike dives with a
clothesline off of the apron. He tries a charge, but Scotty blocks with a
backdrop on the floor, and they head back in. Mike grabs him with a release
overhead suplex, but Scotty ducks a clothesline, and hits a jumping forearm at
2:16. Too short, but both guys seemed to be trying to make the most of their TV
time. * ½ (Original rating: ½*)
Souled Out t-shirt
ad
Gene Okerlund
brings the Four Horsemen (sans Ric Flair) out for their usual interview, since
I guess Woman and Debra McMichael getting catty with each other and pushing a
storyline that never seems to go anywhere isn't just for Monday nights anymore!
Six-Man Tag Team
Match: Konnan, La Parka, and JL v Chris Jericho, Chavo Guerrero Jr, and Super
Calo:
JL and Chavo start, and they get into a criss cross almost right away, but JL
winning via a jumping backelbow. Another criss cross is won by Guerrero with a
jumping forearm, and tags are made to Konnan and Calo. They do their own criss
crossing, dominated by Calo, and he comes off the top with a flying
headscissors takedown. Tags to Parka and Jericho, and Parka quickly hits a
powerslam for two. Criss cross ends up Chris hitting a clothesline, but Parka
fires back with a kick. Charge in the corner, but Jericho blocks, and a 2nd
rope dropkick sends Parka to the outside. Somehow that ends in Chavo getting
beat up, and they cut the ring in half on him. Konnan and Parka give him a cool
electric chair/flying corkscrew senton combo, but Chavo barely even sells it,
and gets a tag off to Jericho. That move still looks pretty wild today, and I'm
surprised they'd waste it on a nothing tag match where the guy doesn't even
sell it. Everyone ends up on the outside trading dives, and inside, JL catches
Jericho with a rana for two. Sidewalk slam sets up a dive, but Chris crotches
him on the top, and brings him off with a rana at 5:27. I'm not really into
Lucha style wrestling, but this was generally fun, and kind of prescient of
what modern tag wrestling looks like. ** (Original rating: *)
Harlem Heat v
Renegade and Joe Gomez: The Heat attack at the bell, getting rid of
Renegade, and isolating Gomez. They work him over as the dust settles, with
Stevie Ray hitting a big boot, followed by a bodyslam. Over to Booker T for a
Harlem Sidekick, but Gomez counters a suplex with a small package for two, so
Booker kills him with a clothesline, and brings Stevie back in for a tandem
vertical suplex for two. Stevie dumps Joe to the outside for Sister Sherri to
abuse, and back in, he hits a 'legdrop.' The quotes because it was more like an
ankledrop with that poor execution. Booker with the axekick to set up a 2nd
rope legdrop, but Joe dodges, so we never get to find out if his actual leg
would have hit. Sad. Hot tag Renegade, but the Heat quickly cut that shit off,
and finish with an electric chair/missile dropkick combo at 3:46. Energetic enough,
but nothing much here. ¾* (Original rating: ¼*)
Lee Marshall is in
Des Moines Iowa with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report
Masahiro Chono v
Alex Wright:
Nick Patrick is the referee here, which makes you wonder why Wright would even
agree to the match. Chono beats him down before the bell, but Wright gets fired
up, and attacks in the corner. He unloads turnbuckle smashes, and even stops to
beat up the nWo t-shirt, so you know he really means business here. Alex with a
leg-feed enzuigiri, and a headscissors takedown leads to a dropkick. He stops
to pose, allowing Chono to grab a standing side-headlock, but Wright nails him
with a leg lariat during a criss cross for two - complete with slow count from
Patrick. That at least wakes the crowd up a little bit. Chono attacks while
Alex is arguing the count, and he hits an inverted atomic drop. Wright fires
back with a small package, but the dreaded slow count results in another two
count, and Chono chucks him over the top. Alex dives with a flying sunset flip
on the way back in, but Patrick's shoulder is hurting, and he's way out of
position. Wright responds by hitting him, and Patrick is on the verge of
calling for the DQ, but then Chono just big boots Wright anyway at 4:30. The
timing on that finish was all kinds of messed up, with Patrick having to wait
forever for Chono to come over with the kick. The crowd had zero interest in
this one, and I can't blame them. DUD (Original rating: DUD)
Big Boys Shopping
Network ad. Well, at least Public Enemy has something to do that doesn't
involve them wrestling
Eddie Guerrero v
Scott Norton:
Eddie's WCW United States title is not on the line here, and Patrick is
refereeing again. Seriously, why would Eddie even agree to the match then?
Especially when he's got a match where the title is at stake in just a few days
at the PPV? I get that it's a fixed sport, but there should at least be some
logic to it within kayfabe. Patrick threatens to disqualify Guerrero before the
match even starts, which honestly would be doing him a favor. Norton dominates
with power stuff to start, so Eddie starts to stick and move, and a few
dropkicks to the knee take Scott off of his feet. Eddie works the part, and
uses a slingshot somersault senton splash to the leg to set up a grapevine.
Guerrero tries some chops, but Scott just no-sells them, and puts Eddie on his
ass with a single return shot. Eddie tries a dropkick, but Scott no-sells that
as well, and clobbers him with a clothesline. Norton with a suplex-slam and a
powerbomb, but he takes too long getting to the middle rope for his follow-up,
and Guerrero brings him off with a rana. That sets up a flying somersault
senton splash, but Norton rolls out of the way, and delivers another
clothesline. Jumping shoulderblock knocks Guerrero right into Patrick, allowing
Diamond Dallas Page to sneak in with a Diamond Cutter on Norton, and Eddie adds
the Flying Frogsplash - a recovering Patrick forced to count three at 5:36,
since Scott is OUT. * (Original rating: * ¼)
Giant sends in a
taped promo for Souled Out, apparently filmed sometime in the 80s based on...
everything
Falls Count Anywhere
Match: Kevin Sullivan v Chris Benoit: Sullivan wants to start on the outside,
and Benoit is quick to oblige him. They immediately spill into the crowd and
brawl up to the second level concourse, and unlike the night before on Nitro,
it looks like they've already cordoned off the area this time. So into the
bathroom they go for the usual hygienic brawl, and even the poor referee gets
knocked into a urinal, which, yuck. Kevin hits a clothesline in there for two,
so Benoit starts punching him in the brain, but Sullivan chucks him into a
heating vent, and slams a trashcan onto him. They go back into the arena, and
it looks like they've got Bobby Eaton working with the security team to get
them back to ringside safely, which is a weird job for him, considering he was
still actively wrestling on their shows at this point. Into the ring, Sullivan
hits a tree of woe to set up the double stomp for two, so Woman comes in with a
chair to whack him with, and Benoit covers at 5:10. This would have been a lot
hotter if they didn't already do it several times before, including literally
just one night before on Nitro. This version also felt too clean, like planned
chaos, as opposed to truly chaotic nature of the previous versions. ½*
(Original rating: ½*)
Big Boys Shopping
Network ad
The Steiner
Brothers v The Amazing French Canadians: This is Scott Steiner's first match
since September, and the Outsiders show up on the video wall to taunt the
Steiners during the entrances, ahead of their showdown at Souled Out. Big brawl
to start, with the Steiner's cleaning house. The Canadians comes back and do
the same, so the Steiner's return fire with stereo dives off the top rope,
ending in Rick Steiner covering Carl Ouellet for two. The heels manage to get
control of Rick, however, and they go to work cutting the ring in half. Rick
manages to dodge the tower spot, but Scott gets too fired up, and comes in
without a tag, effectively cutting his own brother off. Well, he's got tassels
on his boots now, we can't expect reasoned thinking from a man with tassels on
his boots. Have you MET Randy Savage? And then Scott gets the tag for real, and
Roseanne Barr the door. Jacques Rougeau comes in with the flagpole to try and
take Scott's head off, but he misses, and an electric chair/DDT combo finishes
Carl off at 6:07. This felt like a senior circuit version of a hot feud from
years and years before, but instead of 'years and years' it was only three
years. ¾* (Original rating: DUD)
Main Event: Scott
Hall v Lex Luger:
The graphic bills this as Scott Hall challenging Lex Luger's 'rack.' Hey, maybe
he's a little chesty, but let's not go crazy. Lex shoves him around to start,
so Scott tries a side suplex, but Luger no-sells. Lex unloads in the corner,
and a cross corner whip works, but Hall blocks the charge in, and hits a 2nd
rope bulldog for two. He grounds Lex in an armbar, but Lex fights him off with
a clothesline, so Hall cuts him off with a chokeslam. Elbowdrop, but Lex rolls
out of the way, so Scott thinks fast by dumping him to the outside to buy time.
That allows Kevin Nash and Syxx to attack out there, and Hall hangs back,
hoping to pick up the easy countout win, but Luger beats the count. Hall
welcomes him with abuse in the corner, and a cross corner whip sets up a corner
clothesline. Nash distracts the referee to allow Syxx a corner clothesline of
his own, and Scott hooks a leveraged pin for two. Nash throws another cheap
shot to allow Scott a fallaway slam for two, and he works an abdominal stretch,
but gets busted using the illegal leverage, and Lex escapes via hiptoss.
Elbowdrop, but Hall dodges, and slugs Luger back down to hold control. Into the
corner for chops, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and this time Luger
outsmarts Hall's attempt to block the follow-up charge. Lex mounts a comeback,
but Hall goes to the eyes before he can apply the Torture Rack. Irish whip, but
Luger reverses, and hits a powerslam. That draws Nash and Syxx in, but Lex
fights them off, and puts Hall in the Rack. Unfortunately, Nash recovers before
Hall can submit, and this time Lex gets overwhelmed fighting three guys, and
the referee calls for the disqualification at 10:29. A house show effort, but
still totally competent. Afterwards, the Steiner Brothers run back out to save
Lex from the beat down, and hell, that would actually make a great six-man,
assuming everyone is motivated enough. * ¼ (Original rating: ¼*)
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