Original Airdate: December 22, 1997
From Macon, Georgia; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Larry Zbyszko
Nitro Girls are ready for the holidays
Eric Bischoff delivers a pre-taped promo on Larry Zbyszko. And a long one at that. If they edited it down to just that, how long was the uncut version? God help us
Eddie Guerrero v Fit Finlay: Eddie's WCW Cruiserweight title is not on the line. Guerrero dropkicks the leg to kick start the bout, and he works the part. Slingshot somersault senton splash finds the mark, but a dropkick misses, and Guerrero takes a bump to the outside. He charges back in, but Fit dodges him in the corner, and delivers a short-clothesline. Fit dumps him across the top rope, and an elbowdrop follows, as Larry cuts promos on everyone. He’ll take out the whole nWo, he’ll take out Bret Hart - basically he’s 1995 Hulk Hogan. At least in his own mind. They trade off in the corner, and Guerrero reverses a cross corner whip, but gets popped up into the turnbuckle. That allows Fit a clothesline for two, and he hammers Eddie for a while, but Guerrero blocks a tilt-a-whirl, and throws another dropkick to the knee. Guerrero goes upstairs, but Finlay vertical superplexes him down. Tombstone, but Guerrero blocks, and decides to walk out on the bout - getting counted out at 5:09. It’s not a good finish, but at least it made sense, as they sold the story as Guerrero not wanting to risk injury ahead of his title defense at Starrcade. ½*
Video package hyping Giant/Kevin Nash
Steve McMichael v Meng: Larry is still going on, putting himself over the entire roster. Meng pounds him down right away, but Mongo manages a whip into the corner, and he follows in with a clothesline. Another corner whip, but Meng reverses, and powerslams Steve. Meng with a piledriver for two, and he unloads with chops in the corner. Bodyslam sets up a flying frogsplash, but Meng pulls him up at two. He dumps Mongo to the outside, and he follows to whip him into the post out there. Inside, Meng keeps hammering him, but Steve gets hold of a chair, and smashes it over his head. Meng no-sells, so Steve hits him with another one, and quickly adds a tombstone to finish up at 4:44. DUD
Nitro Girls do their tinsel impression
Gene Okerlund brings Diamond Dallas Page out, and apparently he’s the biggest Christmas guy in the world. Is he friends with Mick Foley? I feel like they might have some mutual interests. He cuts a Christmas themed promo on WCW United States Champion Curt Hennig ahead of Starrcade, and it’s fine, though Page seems off his game here, like he was constantly losing his train of thought, or something
ANOTHER video package hyping Giant/Nash. It really hasn’t felt like such a huge match during the build thus far, but apparently WCW seems to think otherwise. And then, after going all in on the promotion, the match ends up not happening
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera, and Hector Garza v La Parka, Psychosis, and Silver King: Garza and King start, as Larry does his usual shitting on the division. If they refused to tell him to shut up about it, they really shouldn’t have booked any cruiserweight matches during Larry’s portion of the show. He’s not as bad as usual this week, luckily. Probably tired himself out with all his self promotion. Raven’s Flock makes their entrance during the match (with Raven not with them again), as Larry catches a second wind, and gets back to putting himself over. We get multiple dogpile sequences, and Rey hits King with a wild inverted rana off the top, before putting things away with a springboard flying rana into a cradle at 5:03. The usual cruiserweight six-man here. I like the division, but I’m definitely more about singles competition. * ¾
We take a look at the winning Nitro Party competition video. After weeks of watching these, that was definitely not the best one (or even close to), and it seems pretty obvious that they selected it because it featured college students, and that would look better than suburban dads when they send the Nitro Girls out to give the prize away
Chris Benoit v Hammer: For those who think randomly dropping wrestlers’ first names is just a weird modern thing, look no further than Raven’s Flock. Benoit dropkicks the leg to take him down right away, and he works the part for a while. Hammer tries sweeping him, but Chris sends him over the top, and he dives with a tope into the aisle. Perry Saturn gets into Benoit’s face out there, allowing Hammer to attack, and he dumps Chris into the turnbuckles on the way back in, in an interesting bump. He didn’t quite get all of it, but it was unique. Hammer works him over for a bit, but he gets reversed into the apron when they spill to the outside again, so the Flock jump the rail for the DQ at 3:41. Pretty weak coffee. ½*
The nWo come out, kicking the announcers out of their position, and installing Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, and Rick Rude in their place. But they’re not done there, they want to give the show a full makeover, and they redress the set to remove all the WCW logos, and then literally redress all the crew workers in nWo shirts, while forcing loyalty pledges from them. So the show comes to a grinding halt as the nWo do their little construction project, and it’s clear that they’re going for the chaotic vibe of the Outsiders jumping guys in the parking lot in the summer of ‘96, but it’s mostly just dull, and endless. Finally, some twenty minutes of this, the group hit the ring (including WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan in Kurt Cobain shades) to officially celebrate taking over the show, as the segment just drags on and on for some thirty minutes. I think we’ve solved the mystery of why this episode featured the closest ratings battle since May, despite being just days away from the biggest WCW show of all time
Backstage, JJ Dillon finds Rick Steiner (on his way to the ring), and tells him that he doesn’t have to go out there for his scheduled match with Scott Norton, and that he won’t face any repercussions if he refuses, but Steiner wants to get it done
Rick Steiner v Scott Norton: Rick doesn’t wait for the bell, blitzing him, and landing a clothesline. Cross corner whip, but Norton reverses, and corner clotheslines him. Scott adds a jumping shoulderblock (‘jumping’ should have been in quotation marks there), and they spill to the outside, where Rick eats the steps. Norton whips him into the rail, as Rude rants about Sting ending his career in 1994, and how pleased he is that Hogan will be getting payback for him at Starrcade. Kind of funny hearing Rude praising Hulk, after he supposedly bailed on the promotion back in ‘94 because Hogan was coming in. Inside, Norton works him over a bit, but Steiner manages a powerslam, and he adds an elbowdrop for two. Rick with a belly-to-belly suplex off the middle rope, so Konnan runs in for the DQ at 3:15. This was really dull, and the crowd was dead due to the extended nWo takeover segment. Afterwards, the nWo do a beatdown, but Scott Steiner and Ray Traylor make the save. DUD
WCW United States Title Match: Curt Hennig v Disco Inferno: Disco's WCW Television title is not up for grabs. Funny spot during a criss cross early on, as Hennig messes up a leapfrog, and just kind of hops next to Disco instead. Curt with a standing dropkick to knock Disco to the outside, and Disco tries to bail, but Hennig drags him back. Really? Inside, Hennig works him over with chops, and a clothesline finds the mark, as Eric talks about his training schedule, which apparently includes things he’s learned from watching Larry, like eating pizzas. Hennig works him over in dull fashion, until Disco randomly starts making a comeback. Swinging neckbreaker gets the challenger two, but he quickly walks into a fisherman suplex at 5:59. This was surprisingly boring, and Disco was booked like a total jobber here, despite being the TV champion. DUD
Bobby Heenan comes out to try and defect to the nWo, noting that Bischoff is the reason he left the WWF, because he’s ‘the Donald Trump of wrestling.’ Well, can’t really argue with that one. The guys mostly get annoyed with him, but Nash finally gives up his seat for him
Harlem Heat v Scotty Riggs and Lodi: Heenan immediately settles in, asking Rude to get dinner after the show, for old times’ sake. Kind of weird that the the nWo replaced every piece of the show - down to the guys holding the cameras - but they’re still using the standard referees. Booker T dominates Riggs to start, as Bischoff decides to take off, and tells Tenay to get back out and take his spot. Heenan is great in full coward mode here, and I miss this Bobby. He really hasn’t been a proper character since the formation of the nWo kind of made him into a babyface of sorts. The Heat work Scotty over, but Stevie Ray misses an elbowdrop, and Lodi tags in. Stevie immediately clobbers him with a clothesline, a two-alarm no-release backbreaker leads to a bodyslam. Back to Booker to hit Lodi with an axekick, and they work him over, before finishing with a bearhug/Harlem sidekick combo at 6:30. This was just an extended squash, with the Flock barely even getting a single move in. ¼*
Chris Jericho v Buff Bagwell: Jericho runs wild on him at the bell, and a springboard dropkick sends Buff to the outside. Jericho follows to smash him into the rail out there, and a spinheel kick finds the mark on the way back inside. Bodyslam sets up a senton splash, but Jericho gets clobbered as he tries a slingshot, and ends up taking a bump into the rail. I’m actually digging the Tenay/Heenan/Rude commentary team, with Rude playing a Jesse Ventura type, and Heenan in full cowardly ass kiss mode. Inside, Bagwell works a chinlock, but Jericho fights free, and throws a dropkick. Both guys botched what they were going for there. Chris manages a bodypress for two, but Bagwell clotheslines him back down to keep control, and he bootchokes Jericho. Jericho reverses a turnbuckle smash, and he unloads chops, but hits boot on a corner charge. That allows Bagwell a leveraged pin, but the referee busts him at one. Bagwell snapmares him into another chinlock, until Chris escapes, and throws a pair of dropkicks to start a comeback. Jericho with a floatover suplex for two, so Buff goes to the eyes, and ropechokes Chris down again. Bagwell with a bodyslam to set up a 2nd rope elbowdrop, but he takes too long getting up there, and Jericho dodges. Bagwell recovers with another elbowdrop, but Jericho dodges that one too, and hotshots him. Jericho with a butterfly backbreaker for two, but Bagwell blocks a rana off the top, and dives with the Buff Blockbuster at 10:17. Decent enough, but it felt long for what it was. *
The nWo return (with yet another slow, drawn out entrance), so that Bischoff can present Hogan with a world championship ring, so that he can remember that he’s world champion even when he’s not holding the physical belt. How much do you want to bet this was a condition of him jobbing the title to Sting? Eric actually gets down on one knee to present it to him, since of course. Meanwhile, Rude and Hennig are having what appears to be a deep, philosophical discussion in the background. Likely Curt telling Rude to cool it with the ‘Sting broke my neck’ stuff on commentary, which was apparently a shoot, as they had legitimate heat. Anyway, we need more Hogan worship, so Eric drops massive posters from the ceiling, one of Hogan on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1985, and another of him choking Sylvester Stallone in Rocky III. This wasn’t a bad segment, just unnecessary
Lex Luger v Randy Savage: Savage tries a sneak attack, but Lex fights it off, and corner whips him a few times ahead of a clothesline. Lex turnbuckles smashes and puts the boots to him, before delivering a vertical suplex, as Tenay starts getting ballsy, and talking back to Rude. Lex hits boot on a corner charge, allowing Macho a series of punches, and he ropechokes him. Savage drops him across the top rope, and he bootchokes him, before doing some stomping. To the outside for some abuse, but Lex reverses him into the rail, and they brawl into the first row. Luger with a series of clotheslines on the way back into the ring, but the jumping forearm misses, and he nails the referee. That allows Savage to recover, but Lex fights him off with a press-slam, so Macho bails. Luger follows, allowing Buff Bagwell to attack from behind, and Lex eats the post. The referee is still out cold, so Kevin Nash joins us as well, delivering a powerbomb. That sets Savage up to hit the flying elbowdrop, and the dazed referee counts the pin at 6:05. ¼*
Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff return yet again, as Bischoff wants to give Hulk more presents. But this time Bret Hart comes out as well (for no adequately explored reason), and the package contains a mannequin head made up like Hogan. Hulk freaks out, just as Sting arrives, ziplining his way to the ring as the episode ends on a really flat note
BUExperience: This is kind of an infamous episode, as WCW tried doing a backdoor pilot for an nWo branded show, and people turned their backs on it in such dramatic fashion that the ratings were the closest they’ve been since May 1997. And though this episode is considered legendarily bad, I’d just call it ‘pretty bad.’ I mean, at least it was something different. That said, it was definitely not good, and even though RAW wasn’t either, RAW didn’t feel like a death march.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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