Original Airdate: November 24, 1997
From Saginaw, Michigan; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Bobby Heenan (hour two)
The nWo join us to start, gloating about their big win in the main event at World War 3. “One of the greatest charades ever in the history of the New World Order,” Schiavone notes. Seriously? They’ve pulled that exact same fake Sting ‘charade’ about fifteen times already. And often more convincingly, I might add! So WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan is riding so high that he makes an open challenge to anyone who wants a title shot. That draws Giant out, and they’ll be facing off later on tonight. Hopefully they can keep it under forty five minutes this time
WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Steiner Brothers v Disorderly Conduct: The challengers try attacking before the bell, but that goes badly for them, and the Brothers clean house. Conduct looks like they pulled their outfits from the Men on a Mission discard pile, or something. Scott Steiner uses some suplexes to get his exercise in, but Rick Steiner gets dominated when tagging in. He manages to win a criss cross with a powerslam for two, and it’s back to Scott. He gets knocked to the outside, however, and Conduct work him over. It’s short lived, however, as Scott hooks a suplex, and tags out - Roseanne Barr the door. The champs finish with the flying bulldog combo at 3:43, with the announcers still trying to figure out which member of Disorderly Conduct is which. “I guess they call him Terrible Tom, or whatever,” seasoned pro Zbysko informs us. ¼*
Even the Nitro Girls are doing high spots now
Chris Jericho does computers
Meng v Booker T: Booker wins a criss cross to start, and a spinkick sends Meng tumbling over the top. Booker with a Harlem sidekick for two on the way back in, but a second one gets him caught in a slam. Meng adds a nice powerbomb for two, and a bodyslam follows. Into the corner for a big chop, but a charge misses, and Booker slugs at him. Backdrop, but Meng counters to a powerbomb - only for Booker to counter back with a sunset flip at 2:54. Not much to work with here. Afterwards, Meng chokes him down with the Tongan Death Grip, so Stevie Ray runs in with a chair, but Meng no-sells him, and the Faces of Fear beat the Heat down, as the timekeeper treats us to a demonstration of how the ring bell works. ½*
Gene Okerlund brings JJ Dillon out to announce that Raven has signed a WCW contract. Raven is in the crowd, and he clarifies that, yeah, he signed the deal, but with a bevy of stipulations. Not much info here, but we do find Scotty Riggs sitting with the Flock this week, having apparently joined the group after fighting them last night
Chris Benoit v Sick Boy: Sick Boy gets subbed in for Raven here, since one of the stipulations is that he’ll wrestle when, where, and against whomever he chooses. Boy charges in, but Benoit is ready with a chop, and he puts the boots to him. Criss cross ends in Boy landing a springboard backelbow, but Chris blocks an Irish whip, and drops him front-first across the top rope. Boy rebounds with a springboard missile dropkick for one, and wow, Sick Boy looks like if Adam Cole and Bryan Clarke had a child. To the outside, Benoit gets distracted by the Flock, and Boy bodyslams him on the way back in. Springboard flying legdrop misses, and Benoit clobbers him with a clothesline to set up a flying headbutt drop. That draws the Flock in, but Benoit fights them off one by one, and locks Boy in the Crippler Crossface at 3:36. This had some decent spots, but zero rhythm. Afterwards, Benoit keeps trying to fight the Flock off, but gets overwhelmed, and they beat him down. ¼*
The nWo sends in a taped promo mocking Zbyszko
Larry stomps down to the ring to respond, which he does by quoting Dirty Harry, since of course that’s how he sees himself. Larry challenges Scott Hall to a match, but instead of Hall, Eric Bischoff shows up - complete with a bunch of papers dropping from the ceiling further mocking Zbyszko. Eric notes that Hall is ‘too busy’ to accept Larry’s challenge, but Eric isn’t, and he’ll take him on. I don’t really get why they’re pivoting to Zbyszko/Bischoff, when the match with Hall is where the real interest is
Nitro Girl do Nitro Girl things
Alex Wright v Prince Iaukea: Wright schools him to start, and a cross corner whip rebounds Iaukea into a dropkick. Corner charge misses, allowing Iaukea a dropkick of his own, and a backdrop follows. Leg-feed enzuigiri gets him a two count, and Iaukea grounds him in a chinlock. Alex fights free, and a criss cross allows him an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Leg lariat finds the mark, and Alex sends him to the heavens with a backdrop. Reverse STO connects, but Wright keeps jawing with Debra McMichael, and losing focus. Apparently she’s gotten her dress caught on turnbuckle, and is stuck on the apron. That allows Iaukea to sneak to the top rope, and a flying bodypress puts the distracted Wright away at 3:15. This was going along mostly fine, but it was really short, and then the angle kind of overpowered the bulk of it. Afterwards, an angry Wright publicly fires Debra. ¾*
Disco Inferno v Randy Savage: Miss Elizabeth trips Disco up during a criss cross right away, so he hops to the outside to go after her, but that gets him sent into the post out there. Macho clotheslines him on the floor before dropping him across the guardrail, and a bodyslam on the way back in sets up a flying elbowdrop. Cover, count, but Savage pulls him up at two. Another flying elbowdrop finishes for real at 2:05. Someone order squash? DUD
Nitro Party video. This one is at a suburban home instead of a frat house, so we even get WCW themed baked goods for good measure
Dean Malenko v Brad Armstrong: Feeling out process to start, as Tony rants against Lodi for standing up in the front row, and blocking the view of fans behind him. “You must have been the hall monitor at school,” quips Heenan. Brad manages to drop him with a sloppy rocker dropper, and a saito suplex gets him two. Neckbreaker gets two, and a powerslam is worth two. Dean fights back with a leg lariat for two, and he grounds him in a chinlock from there. Malenko shifts to a bow-and-arrow, and a cross corner clothesline finds the mark. Flying bodypress, but Brad rolls through for two. Russian legsweep, but Malenko counters with a backslide for two. Brad fires back with a bodyslam, but a sunset flip gets countered into the Texas cloverleaf at 5:25. Dull, but competent. ¾*
Gene brings Steve McMichael out, and Debra quickly joins him, trying to makeup with him now that Wright has dumped her. But Steve isn’t interested, and in fact, he even respects Alex a little for coming to his senses. Gene thinks he’s crazy, since Debra said she’d do ‘anything,’ and Okerlund has a few ‘things’ in mind already
Nitro Gals
Chris Jericho v Buff Bagwell: Buff dominates early on, Bagwell with a dropkick, but Jericho comes back with a spinheel kick, and ands a dropkick of his own. Clothesline knocks Bagwell over the top, and Jericho is on him with a nice suicida. Chris with boots as they head back in, and a hanging vertical suplex sets up the Lionsault for two. Rana, but Bagwell counters with a hotshot, and he mounts Chris with some punches. Backelbow finds the mark, as does a clothesline. Buff is taking ages between moves here, doing all his usual posing and posturing. Bagwell with a chinlock, but he telegraphs a backdrop, and Jericho pulls off a sunset flip for two. Schoolboy gets two, but Bagwell manages a bodyslam to cut him up. Up to the middle for a dive, but he takes too long posing, and Chris brings him down with a rana for two. Chris goes on the comeback trail, but he goes to the well once too often with corner charges, and Bagwell delivers a Buff Blockbuster at 6:56. This wasn’t great, but at least they had enough time to tell a proper story. *
WCW United States Title Match: Curt Hennig v Ray Traylor: Curt stalls on the outside to start, so Traylor chases, and sends him into the steps. Inside, Ray corners him for a ten-punch count, and a corner splash connects. Uppercut sends the champion over the top, but Ray misses another corner charge when Hennig gets back inside, and Curt unloads with chops. Cross corner whip works, as the announcers get into a weird argument about Heenan being an nWo sympathizer. Hennig works a reverse chinlock, but Ray escapes, and works a leglock. Curt fights free, as Heenan continues to cheer Hennig on, apparently thinking he’s back in 1991. Traylor with a bootchoke, and a bodyslam sets up a splash, but Curt rolls out of the way. That allows him to go back to the reverse chinlock, but Traylor escapes, and connects with a leg-feed enzuigiri. That allows Ray to unload some turnbuckle smashes, and he makes a comeback. Scrapbuster gets two, so Scott Hall runs in to cause a DQ at 6:31. Looked like Scott missed his mark there, he was probably supposed to break up that pin. Dull stuff, but then, these two weren’t a great combination even when they were six years younger and better motivated. Afterwards, the nWo run in to give Ray his weekly beating. Phew, thank goodness, I thought we were going to miss our quota. ½*
WCW World Title Match: Hollywood Hulk Hogan v Giant: Vincent tries a distraction to allow Hogan a sneak attack, and Hollywood targets Giant’s cast covered arm. Meanwhile, Eric Bischoff and Rick Rude boot the commentators out, so they can call the match themselves. In the ring, Hulk clotheslines Giant over the top, and he follows to the outside to keep working the cast. Giant reveses use of the rail, but he misses an elbowdrop on the way back in, and Hogan goes back to work on the arm. Giant fights back with right hands, and he manages a chokeslam, but his bad hand gets hurt, and he can’t cover. That draws a fake Sting down, and he hits Giant for the DQ at 4:34. Total crap. ‘Sting’ immediately unmasks as Kevin Nash again, as Bischoff and Rude chuckle like a couple of schoolkids. The rest of the nWo join us to give Giant’s cast arm the ol’ Departed treatment, until Sting rappels from the rafter - only for it to be a mannequin that crashes right through the mat. What a downer ending to the show. DUD
BUExperience: RAW was definitely better this week, as WCW just kind of cruises along, and everyone was taking a night off in the ring.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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