Original Airdate: September 22, 1997
From Salt Lake City, Utah; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Bobby Heenan (hour two). Eric Bischoff shows up at the announce position during the intros to yell at Larry about interfering in the nWo's tag match at Fall Brawl, so Larry responds by playing a clip of the Outsiders putting Bischoff through the stage at Great American Bash '96. How did he call that up so fast? Does he have Peacock?
Rey Mysterio Jr v Silver King: Rey with a few takedowns to start, and he holds King on the mat in a front-facelock. King fights to a vertical base with a chop, and he tries grabbing a headlock, but Rey wants to criss cross. That ends in Mysterio dumping him over the top with a rana, so King tries a slingshot back in, but Rey dodges. Rey with a split-legged moonsault for two, but he gets reversed into the corner, as Raven shows up in the crowd. King misses a corner splash, allowing Rey a wild inverted rana off the top for two, but a rana into a cradle gets reversed for two. King tries a pop-up, but Rey counters with a rana into a cradle, successfully hooking it up this time for two. Meanwhile, WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero has arrived at ringside, and the distraction allows King a superkick. He adds a bodyslam to set up a flying moonsault, but Rey dodges, and a springboard flying rana into a cradle puts it away at 3:14. This was short, but man, they were throwing everything out there in the time that they had. And points for not doing a cheap finish, despite several teases. Afterwards, Rey hits Eddie with a somersault plancha, before Guerrero can strike at him first. ***
Hugh Morrus v Bill Goldberg: This is Goldberg's TV debut. Goldberg shoves him around a little bit to start, so Hugh tries grabbing a wristlock, but Goldberg reverse it on him, and uses a takedown into a grapevine. Hugh makes the ropes, so Goldberg tries a corner whip, but Hugh rebounds back with a 2nd rope clothesline. Flying moonsault gets him two, and Goldberg is done selling. He makes a comeback, and the first of what would become many, many Jackhammers finishes at 2:41. I loved the way they kinda fooled the crowd into thinking Goldberg would just be an enhancement guy, and then letting him explode and surprise them, instead of doing the big entrance to telegraph it. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund wants to talk to him, but Goldberg blows right past him. ¼*
The Nitro Girls have feminine mystique
WCW Television Title Match: Alex Wright v Disco Inferno: Disco is apparently a babyface now? Wright does some stalling to start, and can't get much traction on the challenger, until Disco gets overzealous on a corner charge, and hits book. Alex fires off a spinheel kick to get control, and he unloads on Disco in the corner. A charge of his own ends badly, however, and Disco side suplexes him, but Wright pops up with a clothesline for two anyway. Suplex sets up a flying stomp, and the announcers literally say they've 'never seen that before' despite Wright doing it in pretty much every match I've seen from this period. Alex misses another corner charge, allowing Disco to make a comeback, and he crotches the champion on the top rope. Backdrop and a swinging neckbreaker get two, and a bodyslam sets up a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop, but Wright rolls out of the way. Wright with a side suplex for two, and a criss cross ends in both guys throwing a bodypress - colliding, and Disco landing on top for the fluke pin at 8:17. Never really got into gear, and I strongly dislike fluke title changes, but it wasn't bad in general. Afterwards, Jacqueline shows up to make a challenge to Disco's new title, noting that she "hasn't beat up any guys lately," and even referencing Disco's real life problems with selling for her that resulted in him leaving the promotion for a while earlier in the year. This was weird, and didn't really connect with the crowd. * ¼
Clips of the nWo's Horsemen parody
WCW World Tag Team Champion Scott Hall and Syxx join us to call out Lex Luger, but he's nowhere to be found, so they call out Zbyszko instead. Larry marches down to the ring to accept, but then stops short of actually getting in, using Syxx being there as his excuse du jour. Watching these back, I have no idea how the crowd wasn't completely turning on Larry after weeks and weeks of tough talk and never, ever backing it up
Scott Hall v Hector Garza: Well, that's quite a step down from Lex, or even Larry. Hall pounds on him to start, as Larry talks shit from back in the safety of the announce desk. Scott with a fallaway slam off the middle, but he stops to mess with the referee, and Garza sneaks up with a schoolboy at 1:32. Hall does not take the loss well, however, and immediately kicks the crap out of Garza - who doesn't even put up a fight. And then he beats up the referee as well, which was a way to write Mark Curtis out of the program for a while following his cancer diagnosis (which sadly took his life two years later). They were going for the 1-2-3 Kid fluke pin vibes here, but this was not that at all, and having Hall immediately completely destroy Garza after the pin certainly didn't help. DUD
Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Ultimo Dragon, Juventud Guerrera, Ciclope, and Lizmark Jr v La Parka, Psychosis, Villano IV, and Villano V: Surprised Dragon is getting shuffled in with this band of interchangeable masked guys. He starts with Psychosis, and they trade off for a bit, until Dragon manages to dump him to the outside. He's, in turn, dumped by Parka, so Juvi comes in to send Parka to the outside, and everyone kind of trades off with dumps for a bit. You'd think they're setting up a dogpile sequence, but nope. All the heels end up ganging up on Lizmark, but he manages to fight them all off, and NOW we get a dogpile sequence on the outside. Back in the ring, Dragon dodges a corner dropkick from Psychosis, and he takes him up for the rana off the top, but Sonny Onoo pulls Dragon to the floor. That allows Psychosis to dive with a flying axehandle, but he ends up hitting Onoo, as Juvi ties Parka up in a victory roll at 4:40. Just a bunch of spots, not really my cup of tea. *
Gene brings Interim Commissioner Roddy Piper out, and Hot Rod is sick of Scott Hall's bullshit, so he signs him to face Lex Luger at Halloween Havoc, with Zbyszko as the special guest referee. He also wants his match with Hogan to be in a cage, so that's on now. Doesn't it seem like a huge conflict of interest to give an active member of the roster that kind of power? But then, maybe that was the whole point. Like, a way for WCW to strike back at the nWo
Lee Marshall is in Worcester Massachusetts with the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report
The Steiner Brothers v The Faces of Fear: Scott Steiner and Meng start, and Scott dominates with a few takedowns, so Meng throws a cheap shot. Scott responds by barreling into him with a shoulderblock, and a butterfly suplex follows. That draws Barbarian in, but Rick Steiner cuts him off, and the Brothers clean house. Dust settles on Rick and Barbarian, and Rick wins a criss cross with a powerslam, then throws a clothesline for two. Tag to Scott for a dragon suplex, but he misses a blind tag to Barbarian, and gets dropped with a backdrop/powerbomb combo. The Faces go to work on Scott, but he manages to fight both off with a double clothesline, and it's hot tag to Rick - Roseanne Barr the door! Rick gives Meng a nasty suplex before dumping him over the top, but Meng saves his partner from the Steiner's finish. Rick tries to respond with another suplex, but Meng grabs the Tongan Death Grip to block this time, and Rick is toast at 5:17. Okay, I definitely wasn't expecting the Brothers to do the job there. *
WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan is not impressed with this Roddy Piper fellow. And he lets us know about it
Randy Savage v Stevie Richards: Savage's sunglasses game really went downhill after the heel turn. Did they ever have the Outsiders squash the shit out of Stevie as an inside joke? Because they really should have. Savage does some stalling to start, before clobbering Richards with a hangman's clothesline, and dropping him across the top rope. To the outside, Macho sends Richards into the rail right in front of Raven, which offends Raven somehow. Macho could care less, however, taking Stevie into the ring, and hitting a bodyslam to set up the flying elbowdrop at 3:14. Wow, this was a complete, total, and unapologetic squash. Afterwards, Raven comes in to confront Savage... but ends up attacking Richards again instead. Man, even the endless 'will Jeff Jarrett join the Horsemen' storyline had minor developments from time to time. This was just been weeks and weeks of the same exact thing. DUD
Handicap Match: Booker T v Konnan and Scott Norton: This is scheduled as a tag match, but Stevie Ray is out with an injury, so Booker decides he'll go it alone. He starts with Konnan, and dodges him in the corner, allowing him the Harlem sidekick. Full-nelson slam gets two, and a spinkick connects, but Norton comes in before a cover is made. Booker fights him off, and hooks Konnan in a super sloppy rollup for two, so Scott comes in again, and they spike piledrive him. And then Vincent comes in (despite the nWo having complete control), and it's a DQ at 2:28. Uh, yeah. DUD
WCW United States Title Match: Curt Hennig v Jeff Jarrett: Stalling to start, until Curt manages to take a shot at the leg to get control. They spill to the outside, where Hennig misses a shot with a chair, and Jarrett uses it instead. Jeff drops him across the rail before taking things back inside, but he misses a dropkick, and Curt clotheslines him over the top. Why is Miss Elizabeth with Hennig here? Jarrett sweeps the leg and posts the champ to take control again, and this time he's able to deliver a swinging neckbreaker. Curt comes back with a sleeper, but Jarrett uses a jawbreaker to shake him off (complete with big oversell), but Curt still gets the cover for two. Jeff manages a DDT, and he connects with a clothesline, making a comeback. Figure four looks to finish, but Liz distracts the official, and Savage passes Henning the title belt. He bashes Jarrett with it to break the hold, and a bridging fisherman suplex retains at 8:50. These guys just weren't clicking at all, and the match just never got off the ground. Afterwards, the rest of the nWo come out to abuse Jarrett, until Giant makes the save. Would it kill them to send Piper out to push the, you know, main event of their next pay per view? ½*
BUExperience: The first half of the show was pretty good, but things went off a cliff around the Hall/Garza mess, and never recovered. This one really limped across the finish line this week, and definitely couldn't match RAW in quality.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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