WCW Monday Nitro (May 12, 1997)

Original Airdate: May 12, 1997

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Heenan

Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth hit the ring to kick things off, and Macho's leg is oooh yeahhh healed. Also, he's a heel. Heel appeal. Sex appeal also. More from Liz. So he gives us that random update on his condition, and... then nothing else. He just leaves. I'm liking this one hour format!

 

WCW Television Title Match: Ultimo Dragon v Juventud Guerrera: Lord Steven Regal shows up on split screen to cut a promo on Dragon, looking like every dad on a chilly day in 1995. Criss cross sequence ends in Guerrera dumping him to the outside with a headscissors, but he backs off, and lets Dragon come back in. That proves to be a mistake when Dragon comes in breathing fire with a flurry of kicks, and a rack drop puts the hurt on the challenger. Dragon works a chinlock, but another criss cross goes Guerrera's way with a spinheel kick for two. Bridging fisherman's suplex gets two, so Dragon tries a German suplex, but Guerrera lands on his feet. Rana, but Dragon counters with a powerbomb. The champ goes up for a flying moonsault, but Guerrera dodges. Dragon lands on his feet anyway, and uses a rana into a cradle, but Guerrera reverses. Dragon tries a springboard moonsault press for two, and a pinfall reversal sequence ends in a stalemate. Guerrera with a corner whip, and he takes the champion upstairs, but Dragon fights him off with a vertical superplex. That leaves both men looking up at the lights, and a reversal sequence ends in both spilling to the outside. They slug it out on the floor, but Sonny Onoo prevents Guerrera from getting back inside, and Dragon is able to capitalize with a dive. Onoo rolls a loopy Guerrera back in, and Dragon takes him off the top with a rana to set up the Dragon Sleeper at 5:14. Felt really rushed, but it was a mile a minute, all action. ** ¾

 

Gene Okerlund brings Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, and Kevin Greene out to talk Slamboree, and of the four guys in the ring, who would have guessed Flair would be last man standing from this group? WCW Cruiserweight Champion Syxx and WCW World Tag Team Champions the Outsiders show up on the video wall, and they're wearing sunglasses! Indoors! In black and white! This is so confusing! But one thing that's not confusing is that they're cool. I mean, sunglasses. It's obvious

 

WCW United States Title Match: Dean Malenko v Steve McMichael: Mongo tries powering him around to start, but Dean outwrestles him. Malenko with a dropkick, but a second one misses, and McMichael capitalizes in the corner. Cross corner whip works, but the charge in doesn't, and Malenko takes him down for the Texas Cloverleaf, but the challenger blocks. McMichael ropechokes him, but Dean fights him off with a leg lariat for two, so Jeff Jarrett trips him up, allowing Steve to clip the leg. McMichael hits the running powerslam, but the referee gets bumped in the process, so no count. That draws Reggie White out (in what I can only assume are a pair of jeans he stole from an off duty clown), and he beats Steve down. Jarrett protests, so White beats him up as well, and Malenko capitalizes with a somersault cradle at 3:15. This was just angles, and that's fine. Afterwards, Gene stops Reggie in the aisle for comments, and White is all riled up because you can say whatever you want about him, but you leave Green Bay Wisconsin out of this. Noted, sir. I'll keep that paper clipped to your file. McMichael responds by glaring at him from a few feet away... and doing nothing else. ¾*

 

Lee Marshall is in Asheville North Carolina with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report. Hopefully Jarrett isn't on the show next week, no one needs him Cacklacky'ing all over the place

 

Scotty Riggs v Wrath: This is Wrath's in-ring debut. He chucks Scotty around to start, and takes it into the corner for a kick. Irish whip sets up a clothesline, but Riggs ducks, and throws a pair of dropkicks. He tries a follow-up, but Wrath cuts him off with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and a cross corner whip sets up a uranage at 1:03. This was just a full on squash. As it should have been. Afterwards, Glacier shows up to stare at him from a distance... and do nothing else. Well, at least they picked a theme and are sticking with it. DUD

 

Konnan and Hugh Morrus v Alex Wright and Ice Train: 75% of the guys in this match I wish would do nothing, but we're not that lucky. Konnan and Morrus attack before the bell, but Train fights them off, and the dust settles on Hugh and Train. Train with a powerslam, and he and Alex work Hugh over for a bit, with Wright doing a very annoying job of trying to play to the crowd. Cool it, kid. Morrus shrugs them off and clotheslines Train down, which Alex responds to by dancing. That allows the Dungeon of Doom to go to work on Train, but an avalanche by Morrus misses, and Train hits one of his own. He wants to tag Wright in to finish the job, but suddenly Alex is complaining of a knee injury, and decides to walk out on the match. Um, did we just get an Alex Wright heel turn? How did the WWF ever recover? Morrus goes up for the No Laughing Matter, but apparently Train is too far, so Hugh just climbs down. And after some standing around, Konnan just puts Train in a submission to end it at 3:18. And this guy ended up becoming head trainer for the WWE! This match was a total mess. DUD

 

Backstage, the Outsiders and Syxx have attacked Roddy Piper. Well, three guys wearing masks attacked him. Could be anyone. Even a boat

 

Eric Bischoff struts out to give us an exclusive interview with Sting, but it's nWo Sting, and the gag is that he sucks, and knows Hollywood Hulk Hogan is better than him. At least they didn't insult our intelligence by pretending not to know it's a fake Sting this time. So the bit goes on for a while, until the real Sting comes out, and you can guess what happens next. No, not that. No, not that either. Yep, that. You got it! Such good guessing, pal!

 

BUExperience: Wow, this show just flew by. I think I liked RAW better overall, but both shows were light and easy – if mostly inconsequential.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	5/12/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.8	3.2
Total Wins	17	62
Win Streak		45
Better Show (as of 5/12)	32	45