WCW Monday Nitro (August 18, 1997)

Original Airdate: August 18, 1997

 

From Birmingham, Alabama; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Bobby Heenan (hour two)

 

Raven opens with some dark poetry, taped in a dark room. While wearing dark clothes. And he has pretty dark hair, too. You might say he's a dark character. I don't know. Me fail English

 

Nitro Girls dance, as Tony tells us not to 'get worn down by the same old stuff' as a shot at RAW. Kind of a big talk for a guy calling a show that has had almost the exact same ending for the last twelve months. Oh, and how is that Horsemen storyline going, by the way?

 

Harlem Heat v Buff Bagwell and Scott Norton: Stevie Ray and Buff start, as Larry makes some sexist remarks about Jacqueline. It's really not much different than Jesse Ventura's old shtick, but somehow when Larry says it, it sounds so much more mean-spirited. Buff gets slammed between poses, and it's over to Booker T, but Bagwell goes to the eyes to allow a tag to Scott. Norton comes in unloading, but a corner charge hits boot, and Booker spinkicks him down. Back to Stevie, so Bagwell trips him up during a criss cross, allowing Norton to get control again. Tag to Buff, but he misses a 2^nd rope elbowdrop, and Booker gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! The crowd is going crazy for the Heat here. Cheap shot from Vincent looks to help the nWo to victory, but the referee sees it, and the Heat pick up a DQ win at 4:09. Not much to this one, but the crowd is so hot that it felt more interesting than it actually was. ½*

 

Mortis v Barbarian: Mortis pounds him into the corner to start, and he rides him from the middle with a rocker dropper for two. Bodypress gets two, but Barbarian blocks a vertical suplex, and drops him with a Russian facebuster for two. Corner whip works, but the charge in hits boot, and Mortis dives with a flying bodypress - only to get caught in a powerslam for two. Mortis tries to duck the big boot during a criss cross, but Barbarian levels him on the second go, and that's enough at 2:20. They were working hard here, and manages to put together a nice little back-and-forth match even without much time to work with. Afterwards, Wrath runs in to attack Barbarian, but Meng makes the save. **

 

Eric Bischoff comes out to show us what Hollywood Hogan would look like if he had hair and dressed like Bret Hart/hype the Clash of the Champions. He also wants JJ Dillon to reinstate him as a commentator for Nitro, and let's all just thank God that didn't come to pass. Not just because he's not an especially good commentator (he's passable), but because him doing his heel gimmick alongside the regular commentators would have gotten very old very fast. Very

 

Gene Okerlund brings Ric Flair and Curt Hennig out, and apparently we're supposed to be excited that they'll be facing Syxx and Konnan at the Clash. Duly noted

 

Scotty Riggs v Stevie Richards: Winner gets a pair of 'SR' monogrammed boots! Riggs grabs a wristlock right away, which has Richards hiding in the ropes. Stevie slaps him across the chops during the break, allowing him to unload in the corner, but Scotty reverses a cross corner whip. They somehow manage to screw up a monkeyflip, and Riggs uses a snapmare to set up a fistdrop, so Richards hides in the ropes again. Riggs pulls him off for a pair of dropkicks, so Richards bails to the outside, but Scotty is on his tail. Unfortunately for Riggs, Richards reverses him into the post, and he delivers a pointed elbowdrop on the way back inside. Sitout spinebuster gets him two, so Riggs tries another dropkick, but Stevie dodges, and covers for two. Backdrop, but Riggs counters with a matslam, and he makes a comeback. Sidewalk slam gets him two, but a corner charge lands him in a superkick, and Richards scores the pin at 5:09. Afterwards, Raven hits the ring, and drops Richards with a DDT, before disappearing back into the crowd. ¾*

 

Gene brings WCW United States Champion Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Guerrero out, and they're doing Mega Power style handshakes and everything, so clearly RAW should just fuck off and move to another night. However, they're quickly interrupted by Alex Wright, who really wants to join their new group, and frankly, who could blame him? Clearly the money train was leaving the station, and if there's one thing Germans know about, it's trains

 

The nWo sing 'happy birthday' to themselves, in a pre-taped bit

 

Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Guerrero v Chris Benoit and Steve McMichael: Guerrero tries jumping Benoit, but that goes badly for him, so he uses a cheap shot to turn the tide. But then Benoit just gets more annoyed, and sends him flying with a suplex, so Guerrero bails. Steve tags in, and he wants Jeff, but Eddie wants to handle him himself. Clearly he's feeling the heat from Wright's bid. And rightly so! The man can dance, and we've already went over the whole train thing. A cheap shot allows them to take over on Steve, and they double up, cutting the ring in half on Mongo. Steve fights Eddie off with a flapjack long enough for the hot tag to Benoit, and Roseanne Barr the door! Snap suplex on Jeff gets two, and it's Crippler Crossface time, but Guerrero saves. That allows Jeff a side suplex, but Mongo bashes him with the US title belt to break up the pin, and Benoit covers at 4:47. This was just a quickie TV tag match, and it was fine for that. This crowd is just on fire tonight, though, and it's fantastic. * ¼

 

Nitro Girls are back! And they don't understand the point of daisy dukes

 

WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders join us, and much like Bischoff earlier, they don't really have anything particularly pressing to say, just kind of hype up their match with Lex Luger and DDP later, and then leave. These bits were much better when they were quick backstage promos, wasting five minutes of air time on the entrances to have them do a thirty second promo is pointless

 

The Nitro Girls are now in denim, and possibly Canadian! The workrate on their dances has suddenly improved 20%

 

Ric Flair v Syxx: Criss cross goes Syxx's way with a backdrop, but another one goes Ric's way with a hiptoss. He takes Syxx down in a side-headlock, but Syxx counters to a headscissors, so Flair chops him. Syxx fires back with a leg-feed enzuigiri that leads to the bronco buster, and a snapmare sets up the lightning legdrop. Mounted punches get two, and a corner whip flips Flair to the outside. Back in, Syxx unloads in the corner to set up another bronco buster, but Ric dodges this time, and makes a comeback. Figure Four, but the nWo run in for the DQ at 5:42. They were just going through the motions with this one. ½*

 

Gene brings JJ Dillon out to announce that his review of Nick Patrick's handling of the tag title match at Road Wild was fine, putting to bed the non-angle they had to develop when Hall and Nash refused to drop the belts the day of the show. Patrick is happy to hear that he's in the clear, but he notes that Randy Anderson did a horrible job with the main event at Road Wild, so maybe JJ should start looking at him

 

WCW Television Title Match: Ultimo Dragon v La Parka: I think my favorite thing about Chris Jericho's wonderful tribute to Bobby Eaton is that, apparently, Bobby was terrified of La Parka's unmasked face. They criss cross a bunch to start, with Dragon dominating him. Dropkick puts the challenger on the outside, and Dragon dives after him with a flying bodypress on the floor. Sonny Onoo responds by unloading on him with some kicks, however, allowing Parka to whip the champion into the steps. Back in, Parka delivers a powerbomb for two, followed by a tree of woe. Looked like referee Mark Curtis nearly walked into the middle of that one, maybe Dillon should investigate him too. Corner splash misses, allowing Dragon a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and he takes Parka upstairs for a rana off. Dragon sleeper, so Onoo distracts the referee, and Parka escapes. Dragon goes after Sonny, but a kick from Onoo accidentally lands on Parka, and Dragon puts him back in the sleeper to retain at 4:06. Not much doing here, but it was okay. *

 

Giant v Curt Hennig: They couldn't come up with better music than that for Hennig? Such boilerplate stuff, straight out of the modern WWE songbook. Curt doesn't back down at center ring, and throws a punch, then chops Giant into the corner before Giant finally gets sick of him, and sends him flying with a headbutt. Biel sends Curt flying again, and a kneeling facebuster gets another big sell. Giant with a vertical suplex, and he calls for the chokeslam, but Bischoff shows up with his restraining order, demanding that Giant be arrested for violating it. Unfortunately, that's not how restraining orders work, and so that goes nowhere, and Eric throws a fit. That draws Larry Zbyszko over to corner a retreating Bischoff, as the bell sounds, and apparently Hennig as won by countout at 4:07. And then Giant grabs Bischoff and tosses him around, which I'm pretty sure IS how you violate a restraining order, but I'm not white trash, I don't really know. This was just background for the angle, but Hennig overselling stuff is always fun. ½*

 

Lee Marshall is in Columbia South Carolina with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report

 

Gene brings JJ Dillon out to talk about Sting turning down all his offers for money matches against luminaries like Syxx, and he's just all out of ideas. What could Sting possibly want? So Sting himself comes out, shows JJ multiple 'Sting wants Hulk Hogan' signs, but JJ still can't quite figure it out. No wonder Bischoff thought he could get away with just making up random rules for restraining orders with this clown running the show

 

Syxx t-shirt ad. He can't even do a t-shirt ad without Hall and Nash doing the heavy lifting for him

 

Another pre-taped nWo birthday celebration, this time with them getting drunk, and making a JJ Dillon punching bag

 

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Outsiders v Lex Luger and Diamond Dallas Page: The announcers note that hopefully Sting will say Hogan's name soon, so Dillon can book the match everyone wants to see. What a weird, oddly sexual way of booking matches this promotion had. Scott Hall and Lex start, and there's tons of stalling, despite the fact that we're already in the overrun. I'm guessing that was some gimmick to mess with RAW's ratings, or something. Hall gets Luger in the heel corner for a double team, but Lex fights them both off, and the crowd is inexplicably on fire for this whole lotta nothing. Tags all around, and Kevin Nash throws a kneelift, and pounds Page. Again, the crowd is on fire, and they're barely doing anything. It's crazy. DDP comes back with a swinging neckbreaker for two, but a wristlock ends badly when Nash counters with a short-clothesline. Snake-eyes, but Page shoves him into the corner to block, and delivers a Russian legsweep for two. Nash fires back with a big boot, and it's back to Hall for a fallaway slam, the champs cutting the ring in half. For a while. He finally fights Nash off long enough for the hot tag to Luger, emphasis on the hot with this crowd. Lex runs wild for all of five seconds before the nWo run in for the DQ at 13:14. Afterwards, the nWo beat down commences, but Giant and Ric Flair run out to back up the WCW guys, as we go off the air. ¾*

 

BUExperience: This was an okay show, but felt pretty rudderless at times, and certainly not as entertaining as RAW. The biggest problem is that huge chunks of it felt like someone playing TEW, booking certain guys just to get the rating up, regardless of whether or not those guys actually had anything interesting to do.

 

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	8/18/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	3.2	4.0
Total Wins	17	75
Win Streak		58
Better Show (as of 8/18)	39	50