WCW Monday Nitro (May 5, 1997)

Original Airdate: May 5, 1997

From Lakeland, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Heenan

Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, and Kevin Greene are already out as the show opens, but before they can get a word in, the nWo interrupt in the form of banners and flyers dropping from the ceiling to mock them. Piper doesn't care if they want 75% of the purse money, he wants to fight. This draws JJ Dillon out to clarify that, indeed, the nWo is entitled to 75%, since Eric Bischoff wrote some pretty sweet deals for them while he held power. But why tell us? Piper already said he didn't care about the money anyway. Anyway, this was a pretty good fired up promo, but I don't think they used the word 'Slamboree' even once, so I'm not sure how effective it was in actually selling the match

Public Enemy v Konnan and Hugh Morrus: Big brawl right away, in and out of the ring. The Enemy put Konnan on the bottom of a double decker table stack, but Johnny Grunge misses his dive, and goes through it himself. That allows the Dungeon of Doom to take Rocco Rock in for a double team, but Rock fights back with a springboard moonsault press onto both men. Konnan responds with a powerbomb, so Rock goes to the top, but Hugh superplexes him off through a table for the pin at 3:36. This was barely a match. ¼*

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Syxx v Rey Mysterio Jr: Syxx dressing like a mini Kevin Nash is pretty adorable. Nash and Scott Hall distract Rey to allow Syxx a brutal looking spinkick before the bell, but Rey blocks the bronco buster. That allows Rey some mounted punches, so the Outsiders come in, and the referee somehow doesn't see anything. Hall kills the challenger with the Outsider's Edge, and Syxx slaps on the Buzz Killer at 0:54. This immediately draws Dillon and Nick Patrick (in a WCW shirt) out, but poor Nick gets immediately killed by Nash. Dillon gets cut off by the rest of the nWo, who inform him that he's got no power to stop them, as he just stands around with his dick in his hands to prove them right. What a terrible segment. DUD

Lee Marshall is in Baltimore Maryland with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan is out, and it's funny how he had to turn heel in order to get WCW audiences to cheer him. So Bischoff wants to know when Hulk is going to take care of Sting, so Hogan challenges him right here right now... but Sting is nowhere to be seen. Boy, they drew that match out forever, didn't they? And it paid off in the end, but some of these stop/starts are annoying. Like, this whole interview felt totally pointless, with Hogan calling out Sting, getting nothing, and just doing more posing instead

Lord Steven Regal v Meng: Meng charges in and take it to Regal in the corner, but Steven holds his own, and we've got a big slugfest. That draws Kevin Sullivan to ringside, and Regal dives out of the ring at him, which somehow results in a no-contest at 0:30. And you thought the Hogan segment was pointless! DUD

Randy Savage/Diamond Dallas Page feud review video

Gene Okerlund brings DDP and Kimberly out, and Gene is just straight up ogling her this week. Page talks about growing up on the Jersey Shore, and now I want that crossover show like nothing else. All this draws Savage a Miss Elizabeth out in the crowd, and it's more of nothing, as they just yell threats of ass kickings at each other from a safe distance

Jeff Jarrett v Alex Wright: Larry gets into a funny bit about how he hated when fans would try to slap his hands on the way to the ring, which is mostly funny because who the fuck ever wanted to slap Larry's hand? And speaking of funny, listening to the announcers talk about how Sting will show up... someday, somewhere... is straight up hilarious. Jeff takes him to school in the opening moments, but Wright gets fired up, and unloads in the corner. That draws Debra McMichael onto the apron, but Alex makes the mistake of dancing at her (including the crotch thrusting), and Jarrett clips the leg to set up the Figure Four at 1:26. DUD

Glacier v Lizmark Jr: Larry gets a funny story in where he talk about how Mike Tenay 'cornered' him in a room, talking about Lizmark Sr. You can totally picture it happening. Of course, Larry would know a thing or two about not knowing when to shut up. Cryonic Kick finishes at 0:18. Man, even 1999 WWF would be telling this show to simmer. Afterwards, Mortis and Wrath run in to attack, which seems kind of cruel considering they already stole Glacier's helmet the other week. What more do they want from him? DUD

Harlem Heat v Giant and Diamond Dallas Page: Lex Luger was hurt in Japan, so DDP is the surprise replacement. But Dallas never even makes it to the ring, as the nWo attack him on the way, and then run in on Giant and the Heat for good measure. So no match, just an nWo beat down instead. Flair, Piper, and Greene try to make the save, but they're badly outnumbered, and get killed. Maybe try bringing weapons with you next time? Do you really think Sting's big secret is his bungee cord? It's the bat, guys. It's the bat

BUExperience: Their timing was way off this week. It was like they had a million different ideas, and wanted to cram every single one of them into the shortened one hour broadcast. Sometimes that can make for a very lively show, but in this case, everything just felt rushed and nothing felt impactful. I didn't like the opposing RAW much either, but at least it felt like it had a point.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	5/5/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.8	3.2
Total Wins	17	61
Win Streak		44
Better Show (as of 5/5)	31	45