Original Airdate: January 19, 1998
From New Orleans, Louisiana; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (hour one) and with Bobby Heenan (hour two)
The Nitro Girls open the show. And the announcers need to talk about the nWo over even that
Eddie Guerrero v Rick Martel: Eddie attacks before the bell, pounding Martel down, and putting the boots to him. Into the corner to unload, but Rick reverses a turnbuckle smash, and dives with a 2nd rope clothesline. Martel with a press-slam, so Guerrero bails, stalling. He charges back in, allowing Martel a pair of armdrags, and Eddie backs off again. Guerrero manages to take him down for a leglock, and he adds a slingshot somersault senton splash. Side suplex gets him two, but he runs into a rotating spinebuster, and Martel shifts it into a Boston crab at 3:20. Pretty huge pop for that one, actually. The match felt like it was going along well, but it was too short to really get out of first gear. *
Eric Bischoff and Hollywood Hulk Hogan join us to… not really say much, honestly
Chris Benoit v Marty Jannetty: Apparently Benoit has wanted this match for ‘quite a while.’ Didn’t Marty just debut, like, a week ago? Benoit unloads on him to start, but a criss cross allows Jannetty a headscissor takedown, and he plants a superkick from there. Chopfest in the corner actually goes Jannetty’s way, and he snapmares Chris into an elbowdrop. Corner whip works, but the charge in hits boot, and Benoit sends him spiraling with a big clothesline. Backelbow finds the mark, but Jannetty wins another battle in the corner, and uses a kneelift for two. Vertical suplex, but Benoit reverses for one, and dumps the man to the outside. Chris tries pulling him back in, but Jannetty snaps his throat across the top to block, and Marty slides back in with a facebuster, as Raven observes from the aisle. Benoit doesn’t notice him, however, and puts Marty in a crippler crossface at 4:09. The Flock run in on Benoit immediately, but Marty helps him fight them off, and now I really want to see Benoit and Jannetty teaming against, say, Raven and Saturn. * ¼
Ernest Miller v Jerry Flynn: Flynn suckers him into bowing, and then blasts him with a knee when Miller falls for it. Jerry beats on him on the outside, and grabs an anklelock on the way back in, but Miller is in the ropes. Flynn unloads in the corner, and a corner spinheel kick finds the mark. Jerry hammers him with rights, but Miller catches the arm, and armdrags him into a cross-armbreaker. Flynn fights free, so Miller takes him down again in a grapevine, but Jerry has the ropes. Flynn with a clothesline after the break, and suddenly the match falls apart, as both guys appear to get lost. Whole lot of nothing for a bit, until Miller suddenly starts making a comeback. He connects with a flying roundhouse kick, and that’s it for Jerry at 3:19. This was pretty fun for the most part, but tripped and fell on its face in the last act. *
Nitro Girls. Or ‘Nitro Guuurrrrlllss,’ per Schiavone
WCW World Tag Team Champion Scott Hall comes out to hype up his match with Larry at Souled Out. He gets some pretty funny lines in here, like reminding Larry that he was AWA World Champion… when his father-in-law owned the company. Or noting that, sure, Larry was their champion… when they went out of business. Poor Zbyszko looks legitimately furious here, and it was a nice little segment. Hall knows just how to make this sort of thing work
The Steiner Brothers v Konnan and Buff Bagwell: Scott Steiner starts with Buff, and pounds him down in short order, then absolutely plants the guy with a belly-to-belly suplex. Nicely executed there. Tag to Konnan, but he loses a criss cross when Scott throws a clothesline, and Steiner adds a hiptoss. Press-slam sends Konnan bailing to regroup, and he passes back to Bagwell on the way in. Scott continues wrecking them at will, however, until a cheap shot sends Scott careening over the top. That allows the nWo to work him over, as the announcers get across the story that Rick Steiner wants a tag, but Scott doesn’t seem to want to give him one. Did they learn nothing from Royal Rumble ‘94? Perhaps if they weren’t so busy sulking about their Japan bookings, or whatever, they might have learned something. Anyway, Scott makes a comeback all on his own, and puts Konnan away with a tombstone at 5:21. *
Gene Okerlund brings Giant out, literally just so Giant can yell ‘chokeslam.’ Well, that was a great use of airtime. Oh, but then Hogan and WCW World Tag Team Champion Kevin Nash join us to get in Giant’s face, but here’s Randy Savage to get in Nash’s face. Hulk puts the kibosh on that one, so Savage shoves Hogan, who collides with Nash - who collides with Giant. Giant prepares to retaliate, so Hogan saves with a baseball bat. That draws Sting out, however, and Hulk eats a Scorpion Deathdrop. Not a great segment, but at least it went somewhere
Nitro Girls whisper something in Shawn Michaels’ ear
WCW Television Title Match: Booker T v Mortis: Booker’s one of those people who just looks right with that particular title belt design. Tony announces that, starting next week, Nitro will be three hours every week. Bobby is looking forward to that. I am not. Criss cross early on, won by Booker with an axekick for two. He holds an armbar from there, but Mortis fights him off in the corner, and delivers a bodyslam. Elbowdrop, but Booker dodges. He tries an elbowdrop, but Mortis moves, so Booker just Harlem sidekicks him to put a stop to the foolishness. Another, but Mortis ducks this time, and Booker crotches himself across the top. Dropkick knocks Booker to the outside, and Mortis uses a bridging northern lights suplex for two on the way back in. Wasitlock, but Booker uses a victory cradle for two, so Mortis gives him a kneeling facebuster to keep control. Mortis tries a rana off the top, but Booker counters with an absolutely nasty powerbomb, and they really should have just called an audible and made that the finish. Harlem Hangover finishes for real at 4:27. Afterwards, Wrath attacks Booker, until Rick Martel makes the save. Rick wants a shot at Booker’s gold at Souled Out, and Booker is game to accept. *
Gene brings Ric Flair out to hype his match with Bret Hart at Souled Out, and they’re quickly joined by the Hitman. Bret openly acknowledges that Flair is one of the all-time greats, and respects all he’s done for the sport… but he’s still going to beat him this Saturday. This was a solid segment, though not quite as good as some of their other ones
Chris Jericho v Juventud Guerrera: Feeling out process to start, quickly turning into a criss cross - both dominated by Guerrera. Jericho tries a clothesline, but Guerrera ducks, and delivers a headscissor takedown. Springboard flying dropkick knocks Chris to the outside, and Jericho stalls out there to break the momentum. Back in, Jericho grabs a standing side-headlock, so Guerrera forces another criss cross. Reversal sequence is won by Guerrera with a pair of spinkicks, putting Jericho in the corner for chops. Charge, but Jericho sidesteps, and Guerrera takes a nice bump on the miss. Jericho tries a tornado DDT, but Guerrera lands on his feet, and hooks a magistral cradle for two. Flying spinheel kick gets two, but a dropkick misses, and Guerrera lands on the outside off of the miss. Jericho with a cheap shot after holding the ropes open for Guerrera to climb back in, and a spinebuster sets up the Liontamer at 4:47. Afterwards, Jericho apologizes for not letting off the hold right at the bell, but Guerrera isn’t interested in hearing it, so Chris attacks. That draws Rey Mysterio Jr out, however, and he works with Guerrera to chase Jericho off. * ½
Nitro Party video. People actually sent these in? They weren’t hidden camera videos?
Lex Luger v Scott Hall: I feel like we’ve seen this match about three million times already. WCW was great at all these great, random combinations (quite a few right on this very show), but then they could also be guilty of running the same match over and over and over again, ad nauseam. A quick check shows that we actually haven’t seen this match on TV too often at all, but it really feels like we have anyway, which is somehow worse. It’s kind of like John Cena/Randy Orton - even the first time they met already felt like the hundredth. They trade bow-and-arrows (won by Hall with a mulekick), and Scott puts the boots to him. Lex fights him off with a sleeper, but Scott crotches him across the top rope to escape, and he hooks the leg for two. Scott with right hands, but Lex is tired of selling, and launches a comeback. Torture rack looks to finish, but Randy Savage runs in for the DQ at 7:42. Boring match. Afterwards, the heels beat Luger down, so Larry tries running in to make the save, but it goes very badly for him. ¼*
Hollywood Hulk Hogan v Giant: Bischoff tries to call the match off since Hogan (in a neckbrace) sustained an injury in the earlier segment, but Giant isn’t buying it, dragging Hulk into the ring with a vertical suplex. Giant unloads on him with chops, and a cross corner clothesline puts Hogan down, as Nash joins us at ringside. Bootchoke leaves Hogan scrambling to escape to the outside, but Giant follows, feeding Hulk the steps and the guardrail. Giant presses Hulk back into the ring for a backbreaker, and he bootchokes him in the corner again. Hulk’s haircut this week is somehow not even the worst of the night, as Jacques Rougeau saved him from the distinction. No wonder Hulk put him over that time. Nash takes a cheap shot to allow Hogan to turn the tide, and he goes to work on Giant with punch/kick stuff. Hogan with a big boot and a bodyslam (pretty casually, actually) to set up the legdrop. Cover, count… and Savage misses his cue to break it, leaving the referee to have to stop for no logical reason. Hogan jaws at Savage anyway, allowing Giant to recover with a chokeslam at 6:09. I mean, you weren’t expecting this to actually be good, were you? Afterwards, we get a big brawl to hard sell Souled Out, complete with Sting making the save for the WCW guys. The arena is so big that it takes Sting about ten minutes to actually rappel down to the ring, but the visual was cool. DUD
BUExperience: Nitro had better in-ring action this week, but RAW felt like a game changer, and just hotter.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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