WCW Monday Nitro (October 6, 1997)

Original Airdate: October 6, 1997

 

From Minneapolis, Minnesota; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Bobby Heenan (hour two). We get a tribute to Brian Pillman before the intro here

 

Nitro Girls shake it up, and have a wardrobe malfunction. Luckily, Bobby isn’t on until the second hour, because you know he’d have a crack ready to go on that

 

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff kick things off with a really basic promo on Sting that doesn’t really say much/advance anything

 

Jeff Jarrett v Booker T: Jeff wins a criss cross with a hiptoss to start, so Booker unloads on him in the corner, and delivers a hiptoss of his own. Jeff tries firing back with a dropkick, but Booker dodges, and one of his own puts Jarrett on the outside. Jeff sweeps Booker from the floor to allow him to come back in with a straddling ropechoke, but a missed corner charge allows Booker a sunset cradle for two. Jeff cuts him off and uses a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop, but Booker dodges, and plants the Harlem sidekick on him. Jeff bails, but Booker is on his tail this time, only to get nailed. Jeff dives with a flying bodypress for two on the way back in, and he lands the dropkick he missed earlier. Backdrop, but Booker counters with a sunset flip, only to get cut off again. Jeff with a short-clothesline, but a backelbow misses, and Booker connects with a forearm out of the ropes. Booker makes a comeback, and the axekick is worth two. Clothesline sends Jarrett over the top, and suddenly Steve McMichael shows up to start shouting at Debra. He punches Jarrett for kicks as well, and Booker rolls him up on the way back in for the pin at 8:26. This was solid back and forth action, though the finish was unnecessarily overbooked. I mean, Jarrett was on this way out the door anyway, just put Booker over clean. **

 

Halloween Havoc ad. Remember a year ago, when this was a hot feud? WCW is sure hoping that you do!

 

Alex Wright v Billy Kidman: Wright dominates him in the early going, and he dumps Billy to the outside, where Raven is seated in the front row with Perry Saturn (in Saturn’s WCW debut). Billy manages a plancha, as we see that Mongo and Debra are having a shouting match backstage. Meanwhile, Wright gives Kidman a hotshot, and a flying stomp follows. Cross corner whip is followed in with an elbow, and a bridging snap suplex is worth two. Clothesline, but Kidman counters with a sunset cradle for two, so Wright blasts him with a clothesline to cut off the comeback. German suplex, but Kidman counters with a stunner, and makes a comeback. Dropkick off the middle has Wright begging off, but Billy stays on him. Kneeling facebuster and a bulldog get two, so Kidman goes up with a flying 450 splash, but Wright dodges. That allows Alex to hook a bridging German suplex for the pin at 6:03. Both guys are good workers, but the match wasn’t very good at all. It felt like they were just going through the motions with it here. *

 

Nitro Girls dance their way into your heart

 

Mortis v Ernest Miller: Miller takes him down with an armdrag to start, and they do some measuring. Miller dominates, and a hiptoss leads to a roundhouse kick for two. Bodyslam sets up a dive, but James V crotches him on the top, allowing Mortis to bring him down with a rocker dropper for two. Death valley driver gets two, so he dumps Miller over the top for James to abuse a bit. Mortis suplexes him back inside for two, and a reverse STO is worth two. Mounted punch gets two, and a bodyslam sets up a flying splash, but Ernest rolls out of the way. He makes a comeback, and a springboard flying kick finishes at 5:23. This felt really long for the dull, disjointed match they delivered. ¾*

 

nWo sponsored Randy Savage/Diamond Dallas Page feud review. Which is basically just a video of Randy beating DDP up a bunch of times

 

Scott Hall v Hector Garza: Hall is sporting taped up ribs here, and is complaining about his ‘severe injuries,’ which is (as usual with this era) some inside bullshit about some backstage bullshit. Hall is just acting like a complete jerk here, beating up Garza with ease, in between pretending to be mock injured. Scott with a fallaway slam, but he stops to abuse the referee for no real reason, cornering him so Syxx can come in with a bronco buster on Garza. Outsider’s Edge finishes at 1:52. And then afterwards, Hall and Syxx beat up the official for kicks. If you want a perfect clip of everything wrong with the promotion at this point, you can’t really top these few minutes of TV time. DUD

 

We take a look back at Bill Goldberg’s first few TV wins, and learn more about his athletic background in football. None of this from the mysterious Goldberg, just detective work from the broadcasters. Which is the right way to present it

 

Nitro Girls now have headbands. Or, well, one of them does. The others don’t

 

WCW Television Title Match: Disco Inferno v Diamond Dallas Page: They measure each other a little to start, and Page goes for the Diamond Cutter early on, but Disco manages to bail to the outside to avoid it. He stalls for a bit, and tries a hammerlock on the way back in, but Page quickly fights him off. Page with a bodyslam and a swinging neckbreaker, so Disco bails again, but Page is on him with a baseball slide this time. Plancha follows, but a charge hits elbow, and the champion clotheslines him down. Disco with a fistdrop, but Dallas counters a backdrop into a backslide for two. That’s an awkward looking counter. Disco fights back with a swinging neckbreaker for two, but Page wins a slugfest, and delivers a pancake piledriver. Fireman’s carry into the Cutter looks to finish, but Randy Savage runs in for the DQ at 4:01. Boy, could they have made their TV champion look like more of a loser? Afterwards, Macho takes him to the outside for a piledriver on the concrete, but Roddy Piper makes the save. Too bad we never got Savage/Piper like ten years before this. And then the whole nWo run out to save from the save, though long after Page and Piper are already long gone. ¾*

 

Gene Okerlund brings Piper back out for an in-ring interview, since apparently the threat of the entire nWo has dissapated very quickly. Would it have killed them to not book those two segments back-to-back. The usual rambling, only with the added bonus of Roddy putting himself over the nWo at every turn, complete with clips! So all this draws Hollywood Hogan out to get in Piper’s face, leading to a brawl, with Piper getting the better of it. This wasn’t a great segment, but at least it featured the two key players in the Havoc main event actually physically interacting

 

Nitro Girls are so hot that the ring may literally be on fire

 

Mike Tenay was recently in Mexico City, learning more about the history of Lucha Libre wrestling, and we get a little video piece on it. This was actually a nice little segment to give all the cruiserweight stuff some context. That’s certainly a lot more than the WWF was doing with it on their side

 

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Eddie Guerrero v Ultimo Dragon: Big criss cross to start, won by Guerrero with a well placed elbow. He adds a nice side suplex to set up a slingshot somersault senton splash, but Dragon dodges. They botch another sequence, so Dragon uses a snapmare into a chinlock to regroup. Eddie escapes and clobbers him with a clothesline, followed by a vertical suplex for two. Abdominal stretch is applied, but Dragon won’t quit, so Guerrero starts ceacking him with chops. Pop-up powerbomb, but Dragon counters with a rana into a cradle for two, only for Guerrero to cut him off. Eddie tries a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but Dragon reverses. Backdrop, but Dragon blocks, and unloads a series of strikes. Knife-edge chop sends Guerrero to the outside for a tope, and Dragon German suplexes him for two on the way back inside. Powerbomb, but Guerrero escapes. He tries one of his own, but gets countered into the Dragon Sleeper, but Eddie’s in the ropes. Dragon responds by taking him upstairs for a rana off, but Eddie counters with a tornado DDT, and he dives clear across the ring with a Frogsplash at 6:05. Some decent stuff, but it felt like they were off their game here, and it got really hairy at points.* ½

 

Over the weekend on Saturday Night, the nWo attacked Chris Benoit

 

WCW United States Title Match: Curt Hennig v Chris Benoit: Geez, just how many weeks in a row did we finish with a Curt Hennig US Title match in the fall of ‘97? Some woman in the crowd is REALLY into him, though. Disturbingly so. Benoit attacks in the aisle during the entrances (with Curt kinda telegraphing it), and the challenger unloads with chops on the way in to officially start. Benoit with a knee ahead of dropping the champion front-first across the top rope (in sloppy fashion), and Curt takes a bump to the outside. Benoit follows to send him into the steps out there, but Curt fights him off with a legwhip on the way back inside, and he works the knee. Cross corner whip gets reversed, however, and Chris gives him the rolling German suplex. Corner whip works, but the follow-up charge misses, and Hennig hooks a bridging fisherman suplex to retain at 7:04 (7:37 total). A little sloppy at points, but Hennig was game to bump all over the place to keep things interesting. The nWo run in the moment the bell sounds to give Benoit another beating, but Ric Flair makes the save (in his first appearance since Fall Brawl) looking crazy fired up and physical. He literally chases Hennig out of the building, as Tony notes that we “just don’t know how great this is.” Is it like Big Show’s hands, or something? Do we need to see Ric sprint in person to properly appreciate it? ¾*

 

BUExperience: This was a decent enough episode, but RAW was one of the most surreal nights of wrestling ever presented, and nothing WCW could do stood a chance.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	10/6/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	3.0	3.9
Total Wins	17	80
Win Streak		63
Better Show (as of 10/6)	43	51