WCW Monday Nitro (February 17, 1997)

Original Airdate: February 17, 1997

From Tampa, Florida; Your Host is Tony Schiavone with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan (hour two)

The nWo arrive in their limousine, but someone attacks Big Bubba Rogers in the shadows as they make their way into the building. Really going for the throat there, mystery attacker

Rey Mysterio Jr v Super Calo: Hard to recognize Rey with both of his eyes in his head. Calo uses his size advantage to dominate him in the early going, but Rey is able to pull off a snapmare to set up a seated dropkick to the back of the head. Mysterio adds a clothesline, but an attempt at a springboard ends badly when Calo throws a dropkick. Calo with a sunsetbomb on the floor, but Rey blocks, so Calo gives him a springboard dropkick out there instead. That sequence looked goofy. Calo adds a slingshot somersault senton splash on the floor, and an elbowdrop gets him two on the way back inside. Calo with a sidewalk slam, as we abandon the match to watch Big Bubba get loaded into an ambulance. Would a split screen kill them? Calo works the arm, but Mysterio blocks a German suplex, and dives with a springboard flying corkscrew senton for two. Calo bails to the apron, so Rey goes after him with a flying guillotine legdrop, but Calo is in the ropes at two. Rey goes up again, but Calo crotches him on the top this time, and brings him off with a headscissors for two. Rey quickly fights him off, however, and dives with a springboard flying rana into a cradle for the win at 6:01. Kind of middle of the road action, but the high spots are always a good way to get a crowd going. * ½

Steve McMichael v Hugh Morrus: Steve pounds him to start, and uses a cross corner whip to set up a clothesline. Steve with a pair of 3-point stances, but a legdrop misses, and Morrus goes to work on the leg. Bodyslam sets up the No Laughing Matter, but Morrus takes an eternity climbing the ropes, and Steve brings him off with an electric chair. Morrus still keeps control, however, and works a leglock. Back up for the Matter again, but this time Steve just covers up with his briefcase - knocking Morrus out on the landing, and hooking the leg at 4:14. This was really bad, with McMichael looking like a total rookie out there (which he was), and Morrus not exactly doing much to guide him. And this guy ended up becoming head trainer for the WWE! DUD

Review of the Hollywood Hulk Hogan/Roddy Piper feud ahead of this Sunday's SuperBrawl VII

Dean Malenko v Robbie Brookside: Dean is the WCW Cruiserweight champion, but this is non-title. And, anyway, Dean doesn't even have the physical title belt, which Syxx still has. Brookside looks like he grew up idolizing Kerry Von Erich, but developed into a Chris. He tries all sorts of flippy stuff in the early going, but Dean just takes him to the mat, and works him over. Dean with a cross corner whip, but Brookside escapes a suplex, and hits a northern lights version for two. Brookside adds a dropkick and a schoolboy for two, triggering a sloppy reversal sequence that ends in Dean killing him with a brainbuster. Texas Cloverleaf finishes at 2:54. Brookside looked terrible here, so bad that he even messed up taking the Cloverleaf at the end. Afterwards, Syxx shows up to taunt Malenko with the stolen title belt. ¼*

WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders and Syxx come out to address the attack on Big Bubba at the top of the show, and apparently the Steiner Brothers have been in a car accident, and the nWo has footage. They also get in Larry's face, and man, he's such an easy mark. Like, Tony just stands there and ignores them, but Larry gets all worked up every week, and then never actually does anything to stand up to them other than posture

The Amazing French Canadians v Public Enemy: They start brawling during the singing portion, and the Canadians actually dominate that. Johnny Grunge ends up taking a beating from Robert Parker on the outside, and the heels cut the ring in half on him as they take it back in. They go for the kill with their Tower of Quebec spot, but Johnny dodges, and gets the tag off to Rocco Rock - Roseanne Barr the door. Carl Ouellet goes through a table during the brawl, and that allows Rock to pin him at 4:46. Paint by numbers stuff, with the Canadians not even bothering with their usual combos and stuff. DUD

Gene Okerlund brings Diamond Dallas Page out to ask if he's the one who attacked Big Bubba earlier, and DDP is, like, 'Bubba, really?' That's pretty funny

WCW Television Title Match: Lord Steven Regal v Prince Iaukea: Regal's already slated to defend against Rey Mysterio Jr at SuperBrawl, so you can probably safely catch a bathroom break, I'm sure you won't miss anything important. Regal stalls a bunch and then goes to the eyes to stun Iaukea, and he pounds his challenger with uppercuts and knees. Regal with an awkward looking suplex-slam, and he takes Iaukea upstairs for a superplex (looks like that was his original intention, but they got their wires crossed, resulting in the suplex-slam). He adds a kneedrop while issuing taunts at Rey Jr, until Mysterio himself shows up in the aisle, and a cocky Regal gets distracted - Iaukea cradling to win the title at 3:30! So, obviously, this is WCW's take on the Rocky Maivia title win in the WWF the week before, and I'm almost ashamed to admit it now, but I was more into Iaukea than Maivia at the time. The win just seemed so out of nowhere and genuine, especially compared to how forced Rocky's push was at the time. ¼*

Career Threatening Match: Randy Anderson v Nick Patrick: In an odd twist to the usual career stipulation, Anderson gets his career back if he wins the match. Both guys hilariously wear their referee gear for the match. I mean, you could at least lose the bowtie, Randy. In another twist, the actually official for the bout gives Anderson a weapon during the pat down, and Randy blasts him with it for the pin at 0:41 - even slapping the mat to count the pin along with the assigned referee! As a match this was nothing, but as an angle/segment, it was cute and fun. Afterwards, the opposite of 'cute' and 'fun' (Eric Bischoff) shows up, and he fires both Anderson and the referee for the match again since they cheated. Well, they did. Maybe won't be so blatant about it next time, guys. Eric lifting a still unconscious Patrick's arm in victory after firing the others is pretty funny. DUD

Hollywood Hulk Hogan t-shirt ad

Lee Marshall is in San Francisco California with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report

Chris Benoit v Roadblock: George Steinbrenner is spotted in the crowd, and I've always found his association with WCW interesting. I mean, he's a guy that is so associated with 'New York,' and his favorite wrestling promotion is the Southern hick one? Roadblock dominates, but gets in Woman's face, and gets slapped. He stupidly goes after her on the outside, so Benoit blasts into him with a baseball slide, right in George's face. Well, he'd know about baseball slides. Chris sends him into the steps before taking it back in, and finishing with the flying headbutt drop at 2:31. DUD

Earlier, the Outsiders promised footage of the Steiner Brothers' car accident, and we get to see that now. It's camcorder footage of the outsiders tooling around in a car while making wisecracks, until they spot the Steiner's getting into their car at a gas station. They decide to follow, and force the Steiner's car off the road, causing it to flip over in dramatic fashion. Though, really, anytime a car flips over it's pretty dramatic, let's be real. But, hey, at least they waited until they were outside of the school zone before they did it. They may be lawless, but even they have limits. Great segment, surprisingly well produced considering this promotion's track record with this kind of thing

Kevin Sullivan v Doc Dean: Dean appears to have borrowed Brookside's gear from earlier. Sullivan blitzes and absolutely destroys him at the bell, then dumps him to the outside for Jacqueline to beat on as well. Back in, Sullivan hits a side suplex, then dumps Dean back out for more Jackie abuse, as this squash drags on. Back in, and Sullivan finally finishes up with a tree of woe and a double stomp at 3:19. DUD

WCW United States Title Match: Eddie Guerrero v Konnan: Eddie's all fired up tonight, but Konnan throws a knee at him, and hits a press-slam. Again, but Eddie slip free this time, and a reversal sequence ends in the champ hitting a headscissors takedown. Wheelbarrow takedown sends Konnan to the outside, but Eddie misses a dive, and gets whipped into the guardrail - Konnan following in with a dropkick. Back in, Konnan with a rolling clothesline, and he grabs a chinlock to wear Eddie down for a seated dropkick for two. Clothesline and a bodyslam set up a dive, but Eddie throws a dropkick to knock him out of the air. He looks to make a comeback, but Konnan cuts him off with a pop-up hotshot into the top turnbuckle for two, and it's back to the chinlock. Sitout powerbomb gets two, so Konnan goes back to the chinlock again, then to an armbar. Is he gassed, or something? What's with all the restholds tonight? Eddie escapes and finally starts mounting a comeback, using a suplex to set up the Flying Frogsplash, but Konnan meets him at the top rope. Superplex, but Guerrero blocks, and dives with the Frogsplash - only for Barbarian to run in and break the count, causing a DQ at 6:04. Solid enough, though Konnan's overreliance on restholds brought it down, and the finish sucked. Like, why are we protecting Konnan? Afterwards, Meng joins in to beat down Eddie, but Chris Jericho (who will be facing Guerrero for the title at SuperBrawl) makes the save. Oh man, future Jericho should invent a time machine just so he could go back in time and scold this punk. *

Okerlund brings the Four Horsemen out for their usual interview, and as always, lots said, nothing really advanced

Handicap Match: Giant v Johnny Swinger and Top Gun: Gun distracts Giant for Swinger to attack from behind, but Giant quickly fights him off, and then Chokeslams both guys for the double pin at 0:41. Afterwards, Giant spray paints 'Hall' and 'Nash' on these jobbers, which seems like adding unnecessary insult to injury. And then Lex Luger comes out showing off his medical clearance for the SuperBrawl match against the Outsiders, though he's still got a cast on his hand, so I'm not really sure how that's supposed to work. Which Eric Bischoff rightly notes. So... do we have a tag title match for the PPV, or not? Might be something to clarify if you want people to actually, you know, buy your pay per view. DUD

SuperBrawl VII ad. Card subject to change indeed

Roddy Piper is 'live' in Alcatraz prison, where he's been living to train for his world title match against Hogan for SuperBrawl. Well, that's one idea, I suppose. Not sure wearing a kilt into a prison is the best idea, though

Jeff Jarrett v Chris Jericho: Criss cross ends in Jericho hitting a spinheel kick, but a charge results in Jeff delivering a hotshot, followed by a straddling ropechoke. Jeff adds a slingshot suplex as Debra McMichael shows up at ringside, just in time for Jericho to escape a sleeper with a side suplex. Chris with a magistral cradle for two, but Jeff counters a hiptoss with a backslide for two, and then clobbers him with a clothesline. Jarrett goes up with a flying bodypress, but Jericho rolls through for two, as Steve McMichael comes out to try and retrieve his wife. Meanwhile, Chris uses a butterfly powerbomb to set up a flying senton splash, but Jeff dodges. Figure Four, but the referee is distracted by Debra, and Steve hits Jeff with his briefcase to break the hold - Jericho getting the pin in the chaos at 2:32. Good match while it lasted, with lots of energy. ** ¼

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan leads the nWo out to talk SuperBrawl, but here are Sting and Randy Savage to stare at them from the aisle. Sting starts advancing towards the ring, but Savage pulls him back, and they leave. And then Hulk just goes back to rambling, like it never happened. Way to sell the threat there, brother

BUExperience: Neither show had any notably great action in the ring this week, but RAW felt a lot more lively and exciting, while Nitro was mostly the same old stuff, save for a couple of really good segments. And I get it. I mean, WCW was dominating the ratings war, and had over thirty weeks of consecutive wins at this point, so I get sticking to the formula. But watching the WWF innovate and find their new direction is infinitely more interesting, especially over twenty years later.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	2/17/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.1	2.9
Total Wins	17	50
Win Streak		33
Better Show (as of 2/17)	23	42