WCW Monday Nitro (May 26, 1997)

Original Airdate: May 26, 1997

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Mike Tenay

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff join us to start, hopefully to talk about what the hell is going on with Hulk's beard this week. But instead he talks about his kids, and tells Sting he's coming for him. Good to know

 

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, and Super Calo v La Parka, Damien, and Ciclope: Guerrera and Parka start, and they trade off with quick strikes. Guerrera gets the better of it with a spinkick, and he dives with a flying bodypress, but Parka catches him. Parka sets him on the top turnbuckle, but that backfires when Guerrera dives with a flying rana, and Parka ends up on the outside. Calo and Ciclope come in next, as Larry makes his weekly vaguely racist remarks about the luchadores. Ciclope ends up on the outside, so Calo dives with a somersault suicida - overshooting, and ending up in the third row. Holy shit. He kind of clipped some poor kid on the way, too, hopefully the little guy was alright. Garza comes in with dives on Damien, and a baseball slide sets up a flying moonsault press on the floor. Calo tries a running dropkick on Parka, but misses, and gets worked over by all three guys. Guerrera comes in, but he ends up in the same trouble, and then so does Garza. Garza manages to make a bit of a comeback, and things break down completely. I mean, they weren't honoring tags the entire time, but now they're not even paying lip service to the concept. The action spills to the outside for a series of dives, and luckily no kids get maimed this time. Back in the ring, Ciclope tries a flying rana on Garza, but gets caught in a powerbomb on the way down, and Hector adds a standing moonsault at 6:22. Lucha style tags are not my cup of tea, but they're always a reliably good way to kick off a show. **

 

Alex Wright v Psychosis: Wright is still teasing a heel turn here. I like how he basically still does the same annoying stuff he did as a babyface, but now he's more smug about it, so he's a heel. And I'm not even being sarcastic, I like when they don't change the entire character just to accommodate a turn. Alex dominates him in the early going, and a thunderous uppercut leads to a bridging snap suplex for two. Don't often see guys bridge on that one, but it's nice. Alex viciously pounds him down in the corner, but a corner charge misses, and Psychosis dives with a flying moonsault press for two. He drops Wright crotch-first across the top rope to set up a flying spinheel kick for two, but Alex bails to the outside to block a cross corner whip, so Psychosis dives after him in the aisle. Psychosis with a flying legdrop on the way back in to finish at 4:08. I'm kind of surprised they jobbed Wright clean so quickly, but there you go. * ¼

 

Sonny Onoo is impressed with Psychosis, and offers to take him on as a client, which Psychosis accepts. Maybe think about it a little? That draws Madusa out to challenge one of Onoo's other clients (WCW Women's Champion Akira Hokuto) to a title match at the Great American Bash, but Sonny wants her to put her career on the line in exchange, which she also quickly agrees to. Apparently Onoo now has a car dealership, and if this segment is any indication, he's probably making a killing

 

Wrath v Mark Starr: Starr tries to find an opening, but gets wrecked, and Wrath uses martial arts in the corner. Funny, I don't remember Adam Bomb having much of a martial arts background. And I know it was a gimmick in a different promotion, but this isn't the territory days, everyone watching knew Adam Bomb, and knew he wasn't some martial arts expert from the far east. Wrath with a flying clothesline, a bicycle kick, and the Death Penalty finishes at 2:23. Someone order squash? DUD

 

Konnan v Villano IV: Hugh Morrus split screens in, still all broken up about his break up with Konnan. Konnan with the rolling clothesline right away, and a seated dropkick follows. Cross corner whip sets up a corner dropkick, but Villano fights out of an armbar, and starts making a brief comeback to zero crowd reaction. He tries a headscissors out of the corner, but Konnan catches him with a whiplash, as Hugh shows up in the aisle, but gets dragged off by officials. Cradle DDT and the Tequila Sunrise finish at 3:10. Poor Villano didn't even get to pay lip service to a comeback effort off of Hugh's distraction. What a jobber. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund shows up to find out what's up with Konnan, but Konnan is more interested in cutting a promo in Spanish. ¼*

 

Masahiro Chono v Great Muta: This is Muta's return, as Onoo's surprise opponent for Chono, in his first WCW appearance since Slamboree 1995 almost exactly two years prior. And even that was something of a one off. This is basically his return as an active roster member for the first time since late 1992. Chono stalls for over two full minutes to start, and once they finally make contact, Muta just holds him in a standing side-headlock for a while. Onoo protests, wanting him to ramp it up, so Muta sprays mist in his eyes, and both guys beat him down - the match thrown out at 3:05. And so Muta is apparently nWo, which the crowd cheers. This whole angle was a total wet fart. DUD

 

Barbarian v Jim Powers: Jim tries grabbing a headlock at the bell, but Barbarian quickly powers out of it. He tries a big boot, but Powers ducks, and throws a clothesline. Barbarian no-sells, so Powers tries again, but Barbarian reverses this time. Cross corner whip sets up an avalanche, and Barbarian dumps him to the outside to ram into the post. Back in, they trade chops, won by Barbarian. Another cross corner whip, but this time Powers blocks the charge, and starts making a comeback. Barbarian no-sells all of it, so Powers tries a dive off the middle, but gets caught in a powerslam. Barbarian with a big boot to finish at 3:18. Did they not get the memo that they're back to two hours this week? What's with all the squashes? Afterwards Chris Benoit shows up to ask Jimmy Hart for a match with Kevin Sullivan, but Jimmy offers him Barbarian instead, next week. ¼*

 

Handicap Match: Giant v Jerry Flynn, Rick Fuller, and Johnny Swinger: Great, another squash. The trio of jobbers try to get something going on the big man, but it goes nowhere, and Giant chokeslams them all - pinning Flynn at 2:11. Afterwards, Gene comes in to share that Hogan and Dennis Rodman have signed an open contract for a tag match at the Bash at the Beach, and Giant and Lex Luger are game to take them up on that. ¼*

 

Lee Marshall is in Dayton Ohio with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report. Too bad JR was in the WWF, it's weird hearing 'Dayton' without him adding 'the heartland of America' afterwards every time

 

WCW Cruiserweight Champion shows up to ramble about Ric Flair and Nick Patrick, looking and sounding like the random drunk douche bag trying to talk shit at a bar while you and your friends play pinball. He calls Ric his 'fluff boy,' which is pretty ironic considering he acts as just that for the Outsiders, giving them the big hype up while introducing them. Man, that version of the tag title was terrible. They look smaller than the Cruiserweight belt, and it looks especially dinky on Kevin Nash. Anyway, the whole point of this is to announce that the Outsiders will defend against Flair and Roddy Piper at the Great American Bash

 

nWo 4 Life t-shirt ad. Does Nash not understand how to properly do the hand gesture? I'll have to check with Jim Cornette, but I guess that's just not one of the five moves he does

 

Harlem Heat v Jeff Jarrett and Steve McMichael: Booker T and Steve start, and they measure each other for a bit. Criss cross goes Steve's way with a clothesline, and he puts the boots to Booker, as Kevin Greene shows up at the announce table to do commentary. Tag to Jeff, but Jarrett quickly loses control of the match, and Stevie Ray gets the tag in. He pounds Jeff in the corner, but Jeff manages to counter a front-powerslam with a side suplex for one. Bodypress, but Stevie catches him in a slam for two, and Booker tags in for a tandem backelbow for two. Booker with a sidewalk slam, but an elbowdrop misses, and McMichael gets the tag back in to help deliver a tandem backdrop. Are the Horsemen supposed to be the babyfaces here? Because it's not connecting. Mongo gets whacked by Stevie in the corner to allow the Heat to get control again, as Tony makes an interesting point about how Greene is palling around with Ric Flair, yet feuding with McMichael, one of Flair's fellow Horsemen. No wonder no one respected this version of the group. Fish stinks from the head, Nature Boy. The Heat keep working Mongo over, until Steve manages to duck a clothesline from Booker, and he hits a powerslam. Tag to Jarrett, and el Jeff comes in hot - Roseanne Barr the door. The brawl is on, but Mongo randomly notices Greene over at the commentary booth, and abandons ship to go brawl with him. Meanwhile, Jeff manages to get Booker in the Figure Four, but Stevie breaks it up, and Mongo is nowhere to be found. That allows the Heat to hit him with a combo at 10:07. This was a total mess, with both teams not meshing at all, no crowd engagement, and a dumb finish. DUD

 

Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff return for yet another chat to bookend the show, and the beard is still weird as fuck. It's more ranting about Sting, until a fake Sting pops out from a hole in the ring like last week, and the announcers actually buy it, despite it obviously being a fake. And not even nWo Sting, it's some dude in a bad wig and a plastic mask. So Hogan spits on the mat and makes 'Sting' worship the ground he spit on, but while they're busy doing that, the real Sting comes down from the rafters, and it's house cleaning time! Hulk bails and calls for reinforcements, and Sting is supposed to fly away, but there's something wrong with the harness, and they have to stall for a really long time, with the nWo looking like dorks for not attacking while he's just standing there with his dick in his hands. But, hey, at least THEY finally look like dorks on this show for once

 

BUExperience: This was a bad show, with lots of inconsequential matches, and nothing much doing on the angle front either. RAW wins the week.

 

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	5/26/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.7	3.3
Total Wins	17	64
Win Streak		47
Better Show (as of 5/26)	34	45