Original Airdate: September 1, 1997
From Pensacola, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one and two) and with Bobby Heenan (hour three)
We open with a nice video package on the career of Arn Anderson
Steve McMichael and Chris Benoit v Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Guerrero: Benoit and Guerrero start, and they feel each other out. It turns into a slugfest, and Eddie gets the better of it in the corner, then snapmares him over for a bootrake. Over to Jeff to hammer Benoit on the ropes, but Chris wins a criss cross with a chop, and Jarrett stalls. Back to Eddie, and he does a bunch of pushups to taunt Benoit, but ends up in a headlock anyway. Jeff tags in and lands a dropkick to turn the tide, and a snap suplex follows. Back to Guerrero for a rana, but Benoit reverses the cradle for two, so Eddie dropkicks him to cut off a comeback. They work Chris over, but Mongo hooks Guerrero's ankle to block the frogsplash, and Benoit recovers with a superplex. That allows the tag to Steve, and Roseanne Barr the door. Jeff gets Mongo in the figure four, but Dean Malenko dives in to break it up in the chaos, and McMichael pins Jarrett at 8:49. *
Lex Luger wishes Arn Anderson well. While flexing. So you know he means it
WCW World Tag Team Champion Scott Hall and Randy Savage come out to chase the commentators off, and as usual, Larry is trying to play it tough. Apparently they're all excited about Labor Day. Or something
Mortis v Silver King: Mortis pounds him into the corner to start, so King uses some speed to land a superkick for two, and he adds a springboard spinheel kick. Flying moonsault misses, allowing Mortis a spinheel kick of his own, and a springboard legdrop gets two. Suplex gets two, and a savate kick leads to a crucifix cradle for two. Mortis unloads in the corner, so King goes low to fight him off, and he manages a backdrop. Pair of dropkicks send Mortis to the outside, and King dives after him with a springboard bodypress on the floor. King delivers a clothesline on the way back in, but quickly walks into a reverse STO, and Mortis finishes with a Samoan drop off the middle rope at 3:30. They were trying, but couldn't quite mesh, and the match fell flat as a result. Afterwards, the Faces of Fear charge in to brawl with Mortis and Wrath to continue their angle. *
Nitro Girls are dancing like their lives depend on it. Wait, maybe they did?
Clips of Arn Anderson turning on Dustin Rhodes at Bash at the Beach 1994
Dean Malenko v Yuji Nagata: They trade wristlocks to start, and Dean takes control. He works the arm, but Nagata sweeps him into a leglock, as Larry continues to act like he's above everything and everyone in the promotion. Talk about a guy with an overinflated sense of his place in the business. Dean gets a grapevine on him, but Nagata makes the ropes, so Dean takes him down again, this time for a front-facelock. Dropkick gets him two, so he works a chinlock, into a cravat. Nagata gets to a vertical base and takes him down with a corkscrew legwhip, but Dean is in the ropes before Nagata can lock a submission. Reversal sequence ends in Dean armdragging him into a cross-armbreaker, but Nagata is in the ropes. Dean responds with a side suplex for two, so Nagata hits his own suplex for two, as Jeff Jarrett and Debra McMichael join us at ringside. Debra distracts the referee as Dean is applying the Texas cloverleaf, and Jeff attacks - allowing Nagata the pinfall at 4:49. A little meandering, but solid. * ¼
Diamond Dallas Page wishes Arn well in retirement. But without flexing, so he might as well have shit in his mouth
Nitro Girls shake it shake it shake it shake it, shake those healthy butts
Ultimo Dragon v La Parka: Parka attacks with chops after Sonny Onoo distracts his former client, but Dragon fights him off with a rana, and Parka ends up on the outside. Dragon follows to whip him into the guardrail out there, but Parka dodges a handspring backelbow, and Onoo attacks. Dragon tries suplexing him, but Parka saves with a baseball slide, and he dives with a tope. Inside, Parka delivers a powerbomb for two, and a belly-to-belly suplex is worth two. He puts Dragon in a tree of woe for some abuse, but Dragon fights back with a clothesline, followed by a moonsault press for two. Parka tries cutting him off with a powerslam for two, but Dragon lands on his feet to block a backdrop, and he unloads a series of kicks. Bridging blockbuster suplex gets two, so Onoo interferes again, and Parka grabs a chair - only for the weapon to backfire, and Dragon to hook the leg at 4:35. Short, but really fun. Afterwards, Dragon gets some revenge on Onoo, until Parka saves. ***
Clips of Anderson cutting a promo at Starrcade 1985
Buff Bagwell v Glacier: Buff mocks his martial arts posing to start, and he armdrags him over before doing some posing of his own. Bagwell was probably such a dick when he was in high school. Too bad Jim Ross isn't on commentary so he can tell us what high school that was every six seconds. Glacier with a series of clotheslines to send Buff to the outside, and Bagwell stalls out there. They keep changing the lighting on the crowd for every match, which is really hard to get used to. Sometimes you can see every seat, others it's so dark in the back that you'd think they had bad attendance, but it's actually a sellout, which makes it all the more confusing. Inside, Glacier controls, so Vincent trips him up as he runs the ropes, and Bagwell clotheslines him over the top. Vincent abuses him out there, and Buff hits a standing dropkick for two on the way back inside. Backelbow gets two, and a clothesline connects, but he eats boot on a corner charge. That allows Glacier a clothesline of his own, and he makes a comeback. Vincent tries another distraction, but it backfires, and Glacier lands the Cryonic Kick on each guy. He takes Bagwell up for a superplex, but Vincent helps Buff block, and the Buff Blockbuster ends Glacier's one year undefeated streak in single's competition at 6:23. This wasn't very good, but at least they used the undefeated streak to try and get someone worthy over. ½*
Larry Zbyszko wishes Arn well. And somehow manages to go ten seconds without putting himself over
Roddy Piper video package. I guess they were really stretching to fill the three hours here. This one is especially weird since Piper's barely been around since first appearing in October, so they have a really limited collection of clips to work with
Lizmark Jr v Villano IV: Or, Lizmark II v Villano IV, if you will. And, lucky us, Larry is still on commentary. They do some reversals to start, and Lizmark gets a few takedowns, before hitting a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Dropkick sends Villano to the outside for a plancha, but Villano clotheslines him on the way back in, and hits a fireman's carry slam to set up a senton splash, as Raven wanders around in the crowd. Villano with a guillotine legdrop and a backelbow, followed by a DDT and a kneedrop. Criss cross allows Lizmark to fire back with a spinheel kick for two, and a rana into a cradle is worth two. Hiptoss sends Villano over the top, and Lizmark dives with a flying bodypress on the floor. That cues a switch with Villano V, and the fresh Villano tries to take control, but gets caught with a springboard moonsault press at 4:09. This didn't really connect, but it was mostly fine. *
Gene brings Lex Luger out to talk about his continuing drama with DDP, and Luger does a great job of keeping the storyline on track with logical motivations for his character
Clips of Arn Anderson wrestling Bobby Eaton on WCW Saturday Night in 1993
Nitro Girls have their latest dance interrupted by Disco Inferno
WCW Television Title Match: Alex Wright v Hugh Morrus: Morrus leads the crowd through a 'USA' chant while mocking Wright's dancing, so Alex tries a cheap shot during the rope break, but Morrus pounds him until the champion bails. Morrus hiptosses him back in, so Wright hides out in the ropes, and manages to frustrate him enough to take control. Alex works the leg, but goes to the well once too often with dives, and gets press-slammed. Morrus makes a comeback, but Disco Inferno distracts him before he can put things away, and Wright capitalizes with a spinheel kick at 5:42. ½*
Bobby Heenan wishes Arn well in retirement. And he does probably the classiest job imaginable with the ten seconds he's given to handle his business
Sting video package. He wants this 'Hulk Hogan' fellow
Stevie Richards v Damien: Stevie's t-shirt is trying to say that 'Stevie' + 'Nitro' = 'ratings,' but the way it's written is basically 'Stevie' + 'Nitro' ÷ 'ratings.' Which is more accurate, to be fair. Raven jumps out of the crowd and attacks Damien before the bell, but both Stevie and the referee don't see it. So Stevie tries giving the man CPR, but Raven slaps him around and tells him to cover, and Richards does at 0:46. Raven is fine, but Stevie's act does not translate outside of ECW. At all. Like, I could see that CPR bit getting over in front of the smart marks in Philly, but it's not at all something the WCW crowd has patience for. DUD
Dean Malenko also wants to wish Arn all the best
Nitro Girls are really getting their cardio in tonight
Lee Marshall is in Milwaukee Wisconsin with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report
Gene brings Big Bubba Rogers out for the first time since February, but he doesn't want to be called 'Big Bubba,' or anything else, he's just Ray Traylor now. That's still an anything else. He's pissed off that the nWo abandoned him when he got hurt, and he's back for vengeance
Prince Iaukea v Ray Traylor: Good to see he's starting right at the top. Iaukea's not even nWo! Ray hits him with an avalanche right away, so Iaukea tries a dropkick, and a sunset flip, but Ray blocks with a sit-down splash. Ray adds a big boot, but Iaukea blocks a piledriver with a backdrop, and he makes a comeback - only to run into the scrapbuster at 3:12. This felt endless. ¼*
JJ Dillon sends his regards to Arn
Gene brings the Four Horsemen out, but instead of the real guys, we get Syxx dressed as Ric Flair (and looking like Screech), along with Konnan as Steve McMichael. Okerlund is a real stick in the mud about it, however, and walks off, but Syxx leads Konnan over to the ring, and they invite 'Curt Hennig' (Buff Bagwell) out to join them. No Benoit, though. Bagwell stuffing his shirt to match Hennig's gut is pretty funny. So they mock the segments from the last few weeks with Ric hounding Curt about joining the group, but Curt won't come to a decision. So this leads 'Arn Anderson' (Kevin Nash) to come out, and he's sporting a bad bald cap, neck brace, and cooler of beer. This is, of course, the infamous 'spot' promo, as they mock Arn's genuinely emotional segment from last week. Everyone talks about what a travesty and disgrace this was, but who are they kidding, this was hilarious! I think if you looked at it objectively, it's hard not to laugh at this, and honestly, if Flair didn't have so much heat with the nWo backstage, he probably wouldn't have been so offended by it. He was looking for a reason to get offended and indignant. It's also a funny precursor to the 'DX/Nation' bit in 1998
Clips of Arn Anderson on Nitro, June 1996
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chris Jericho v Chavo Guerrero Jr: Eddie Guerrero shows up before the bell and thinks Chavo should step aside and give him the title shot, but then Scotty Riggs shows up, and apparently he wants the shot for himself. That draws out a bunch more of the cruiserweights, with everyone asking for a shot, until the whole thing turns into a big brawl, and we don't get the original match. Well, no wonder there's all this chaos. JJ Dillon has already established that all you need to do to get a title shot is point to the guy you want to fight and verbally ask. They're just following the rules
Giant wishes Arn well, but he'll have to speak up, he's wearing a towel
WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff join us, and Hulk wants this Sting match right here, right now. He's ready, let's go, enough dilly dallying. Instead of Sting, we get JJ Dillon, however, and hopefully he doesn't verbally ask for a title shot, because that's all it takes. Luckily, Hogan beats him up before that can happen, ending this long jerk off of a segment. And how weak are they making WCW look this week? The nWo mock the Horsemen, but the Horsemen don't attack (despite having established that they're in the building). Hogan offers Sting his match right now, Sting is nowhere to be found. I get that they were doing huge business and didn't want to kill the cash cow, but the nWo stuff is getting increasingly (and annoyingly) directionless
Scott Hall and Randy Savage v Lex Luger and Diamond Dallas Page: Hall and Page start, and Scott pounds him into the corner, but Dallas turns the tables. Page with an inverted atomic drop, but he wants Savage instead, and the nWo oblige. Page nails Macho with a short-clothesline, so Randy literally spits in his face, but Dallas responds in kind, and they're getting good heat here. Back to Hall to try an armbar, but Page fights free, so Scott goes to the eyes. That allows him to pound Page into the heel corner, and Randy is quick with an assist over there. They cut the ring in half until Page is able to make the tag, and Roseanne Barr the door! Lex runs wild on both heels, but accidentally hits Page with his running forearm smash, allowing Hall to pin him at 9:36. Yes, another miscommunication finish. Basically the same match we've seen several times already. But at least it wasn't as embarrassing as the Savage/Luger match from last week. ¾*
BUExperience: Three hours is a long time for a weekly TV show.
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