WCW Monday Nitro (September 29, 1997)

Original Airdate: September 29, 1997

 

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

 

The Nitro Girls are still wearing white after Labor Day. And still as uncoordinated as they were before

 

Diamond Dallas Page/Randy Savage feud review

 

Diamond Dallas Page v Buff Bagwell: Stalling to start, until Bagwell takes control with an armdrag and a side-headlock. Page escapes, so Bagwell shoulderblocks him down, and does some taunting. Page responds by spitting at him (classy!), so Buff slaps him around, but Dallas responds in kind. Page wins a slugfest, and a clothesline connects to give him control. Another clothesline sends Bagwell over the top, and Page is on him with a plancha out there! Bagwell fakes a twisted ankle on the way back in to buy time, and he blasts Page with a clothesline after getting some cover from the referee. Dropkick follows, and he drops Page across the top rope, all while stopping to make hilarious asides to the camera in between every move. Dallas fights back with an inverted atomic drop, so Buff goes low to block the Diamond Cutter, and delivers a swinging neckbreaker for two. He argues the count, allowing Page a schoolboy for two, so Bagwell clotheslines him back down. Criss cross sees the referee get bumped, so Vincent comes in to attack DDP, but he eats a Cutter. One for Buff too, and the recovered referee counts the pin at 6:27. Basic, but the crowd was into this big time. Afterwards, Page gets in Raven's face as he makes an exit through the crowd, though nothing comes of it. *

 

Mike Tenay recently went to Mexico, and made a documentary about it. Don't think that ever actually aired anywhere, though it certainly would have had the Network been a thing in 1997

 

Rey Mysterio Jr v El Caliente: Caliente baseball slides into him before the bell to kick start things, and he gives him an Oklahoma stampede on the way inside. Slingshot somersault senton splash follows, but Rey counters a pop-up with a facebuster, and adds an armdrag. Rey wins a criss cross with a monkeyflip, and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker follows. Flying moonsault press misses (though I'm not even sure what he was going for there), allowing Caliente a side suplex for two, and that's definitely Eddie Guerrero under the mask. Caliente tries a powerbomb, but Rey fights him off with an armdrag, so Caliente tries unmasking him, but Rey keeps blocking. Caliente responds by bootraking him, and another try at the powerbomb rattles Rey's brain for two. Wow, he really gave it to him there. Abdominal stretch wears Rey down a bit, allowing Caliente a vertical superplex for two, but Rey blocks a snake-eyes, and uses a springboard flying rana into a cradle at 5:27. This was okay. Afterwards, Rey rips the mask off to reveal that it was, indeed, WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero the whole time. **

 

Gene Okerlund brings Giant out to hype up his US title shot against Curt Hennig later on. And they're finally finding the right angles to shoot Giant from

 

Sting is in the crowd, watching. Wondering what our buttholes will smell like

 

Barbarian v Bill Goldberg: Barbarian puts him in a headlock at the bell, but Goldberg fights free, so Barbarian tries a slam, but Bill blocks that as well. He takes Barbarian down for two, and a 2^nd rope clothesline gets him another two. Dropkick sends Barbarian over the top, but a trip to the top ends badly, and Barbarian overhead superplexes him off for two. He tries chops in the corner, but Goldberg starts no-selling, so Barbarian powerslams him for two. Piledriver, but Bill backdrops out of it, and delivers a kneedrop. Jackhammer finishes at 3:03. Goldberg was still looking really rough here (not that he ever got that smooth, but comparatively), but he was also trying all sorts of things that he'd later abandon. Afterwards, Gene comes out to show a picture of Goldberg from his football days, and he wants to talk about his history, but Bill brushes him off. ½*

 

Gene brings Larry Zbyszko over to talk about his job as the special guest referee for the Lex Luger/Scott Hall match at Halloween Havoc, and he really hates Hall, but he's going to try and be fair and impartial

 

Nitro Girls are the color of money. Also, silver

 

WCW Television Title Match: Disco Inferno v Juventud Guerrera: Disco shakes off some takedown attempts to start, so Guerrera starts coming at him with faster stuff, and a springboard flying dropkick puts the champion on the outside. Guerrera dives after him with a somersault plancha, but Disco drops him across the top rope on the way back in, allowing the champion a hiptoss. Disco unloads in the corner, as Alex Wright shows up to watch from the entrance. Guerrera tries to move around again, but Disco clobbers him with a clothesline, and adds a swinging neckbreaker for two - count broken when Wright puts Guerrera's foot on the ropes. That distracts Disco enough for Guerrera to sneak up on with a sunset cradle for two, and a spinkick is worth two. Victory roll gets two, as Jaqueline shows up to stake her own claim for first shot at Disco. Really, both kind of missed that boat considering he's already defending the title, if that's their problem. She trips Guerrera up during a criss cross, and Disco capitalizes with a gourdbuster at 4:33. *

 

Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth come out to hype up the DDP match for Halloween Havoc

 

Steve McMichael v Jeff Jarrett: Both guys play to the crowd to start, which eats up nearly a full minute. Jeff gets the first takedown, but then backs off for more posturing. Jeff with an armdrag, and a drop-toehold allows him his own try at a three-point stance, but McMichael blocks with a scrapbuster. Steve adds a big boot to send Jeff bailing, and he stalls out there to break the momentum. McMichael follows to try and drag him back, but Jarrett sends him into the post out there, and drops him with a backelbow on the way back in. Jeff delivers a straddling ropechoke, but Mongo reverses a vertical suplex, so Jarrett tries a sleeper. He rides Steve down in the hold, but McMichael fights up, and manages a reversal. Jeff uses a jawbreaker to escape, but a series of turnbuckle smashes get no-sold, and Mongo comes back. Tombstone looks to finish, but Jarrett counters with a chincrusher, and he starts working the leg. Figure four, but McMichael blocks. He goes for the tombstone again, so Debra McMichael distracts him, allowing Jeff to schoolboy into a leveraged pin at 10:25. The match was fine, but this angle seemed to go on forever, and McMichael never really seemed adequately bothered by the fact that the other guy was, you know, sleeping with his wife. The way both guys seemed to fluctuate between being a heel or a babyface from week to week depending on who they were wrestling didn't help either, though that was a major problem with this organization in general in 1997, not just limited to these two. *

 

Nitro Girls are ready to paint your house

 

WCW World Tag Team Champion Scott Hall and Syxx hit the ring, and Scott is on crutches this week for some reason. He doesn't illuminate us as to why, but he's still going to beat Lex Luger at Havoc, even if he has to crawl there. Not sure that's a great strategy, but then, Lex wasn't exactly known for capitalizing on easy wins, so you can't blame Scott for trying

 

Chris Jericho v Syxx: Syxx grabs a headlock at the bell, so Jericho tries a criss cross, but Syxx shoulderblocks him down. Jericho fights back with a powerslam, but Syxx reverses him into the corner, and puts Chris down with a spinkick. Snapmare sets up the lightning legdrop for two, and Syxx unloads lightning kicks in the corner to set up the bronco buster. Scoop brainbuster sets up a flying somersault senton splash, but Jericho dodges, and makes a comeback. Spinheel kick knocks Syxx to the apron, but Chris stays on him with a springboard dropkick, and Syxx ends up on the floor to set up a plancha. Chris goes for a dive on the way back in, but gets distracted by Hall, and Syxx crotches him. He tries a superplex, but Jericho blocks, and dives with a flying bodypress for two. Giant swing follows, and a clothesline sets up the Lionsault. Liontamer, so Hall hops up with a distraction. That allows Syxx to sneak up with the Buzzkiller, but Hall comes in to bully the referee instead of letting him check for the submission. He must have went to the same school of psychology as Wright and Jackie. That draws Zbyszko down, and he breaks up the Buzzkiller, so the nWo advance on him, but Lex Luger hits the ring to back him up, and they leave. And, apparently, the match is a no-contest at 6:10. The match was okay before the non-finish, though nothing special. * ½

 

Ric Flair calls in, vowing to return from the injury he suffered at Fall Brawl, and thanking Curt Hennig for giving him the 'wake up call' he needed. Thank God Ric never worked the front desk at a hotel. Anyway, he decides to disband the Four Horsemen, and honestly, can you blame him? That whole group has been a giant mess for the better part of two years at this point, with the bright spots few and far between. This was a really long segment, and since Flair was not on camera, it dragged significantly

 

Students at Brown University (all of whom look to be about 45) have a Nitro Party

 

Eric Bischoff joins us next, since apparently we've had too much wrestling tonight, and really need more talking to balance things out. He'd like to note that Sting has been ducking WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan for months, and thus shouldn't show up in the arenas anymore, since clearly he's just a big tease who doesn't want anything to do with Hulk anyway. Clearly. And, yeah, what happened to that whole deal? They were going pretty hard with the angle, and then just did a sharp change of direction into the Roddy Piper retread instead. I get that they wanted to save it for Starrcade, but they just dropped it cold after weeks of build

 

Buff Bagwell hat ad. It's von sway

 

Lex Luger v Wrath: Well, at least it's another match. Some guy in the crowd has a 'Big John Studd' sign, so I'm guessing he was one very disappointed lapsed fan. Wrath powers him around to start, until Lex starts throwing rights, and he knocks him over the top with a clothesline. Wrath calls for a test-of-strength on the way back in, and uses it to take a cheap shot, allowing him a big boot. Wrath unloads in the corner, and he uses a side suplex ahead of a flying clothesline for two. Vertical suplex, but Lex reverses, and makes his comeback - finishing with the Torture Rack at 4:38. This was pretty rough, with Wrath looking uncoordinated out there. ½*

 

The Nitro Girls are 4 non-blondes. Except that one of them is blonde

 

WCW United States Title Match: Curt Hennig v Giant: Bischoff kicks Tenay and Heenan out of the commentary booth so he can call this one with Tony himself. Hennig stalls on the outside to start, but takes a corner whip once coming in, complete with somersault oversell. No matter how much he'd half ass it in the ring, he was still game for the oversell, and I respect that. Giant farts in his face (triggering another terrific oversell), and the challenger delivers a vertical suplex. Big chop gets the oversell treatment, as does a kneeling facebuster. He tries a clothesline over the top, but Hennig dodges, and Giant takes a nasty spill over the top. That looked ugly. Curt immediately capitalizes by posting him out there, and he actually hooks the bridging fisherman suplex on the way back in, but Giant kicks out at two. That was a pretty cool visual, though. Giant comes back with the chokeslam, but here's the nWo for the DQ at 3:31. Afterwards, Giant basically fights off the whole group on his own, but Scott Norton brains him with the US title belt to put an end to that, so Sting makes the save to end the show. ½*

 

BUExperience: Neither show was especially good this week, but RAW felt like it had a better overall direction, so we’ll give them the (slight) edge this time around.

 

 

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	9/29/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.7	4.0
Total Wins	17	79
Win Streak		62
Better Show (as of 9/29)	42	51