Original Airdate: February 15, 1999
From Tampa, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (first half) and Bobby Heenan (second half)
Nitro Girls
Outside, Arn Anderson jumps Disco Inferno, and delivers a beating, before getting hauled off by security
At the airport, Ric Flair arrives via private plane, where his limousine driver for the evening (Eric Bischoff) is waiting to meet him
Monday Night Jericho t-shirt ad
Saturn v Jerry Flynn: Posturing to start, and then they trade off in dull fashion. Saturn tries a backdrop, but Flynn blocks, and takes him down. Saturn with a springboard bodypress and a flying splash, but Chris Jericho shows up to attack, and that allows Flynn to put him away with a roundhouse kick at 8:00. I couldn’t get into this at all. DUD
Ric Flair rides around in his limo, but receives a concerning phone call about Arn being in jail. Meanwhile, in the driver’s seat, Bischoff schemes
Clips of Bret Hart on MADtv, where he ‘went off script’ in the middle of a sketch, and beat up Will Sasso
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, and Blitzkrieg v Hector Garza, Super Calo, and El Dandy: Lucha stuff happens! Blitzkrieg scores the pin at 17:11. Hey, it is what it is. ½*
Off in a hotel room somewhere, Torrie Wilson is in a towel
Flair’s limousine pulls up to a field, where it’s being surrounded by Hummers, and tailed by a helicopter. Flair is pulled out by three men in ski masks (very obviously the Wolfpac), and they beat him down with bats, like a scene from Casino. This segment could have been cool, but it dragged on for way too long, and fell flat as a result
Nitro Girls
Video package hyping the tag title tournament
WCW World Tag Team Title Tournament Second Round Match: Fit Finlay and Dave Taylor v Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit: Finlay and Benoit start, and feel each other out. Finlay dominates, and both guys tag out. Taylor dominates Malenko on the mat, but an elbowdrop misses, and Benoit tags back in for a tandem backelbow for two. Chris gets distracted by Finlay, allowing Taylor to nail him, and they take control on Benoit. Dean manages to tag in, and he suplexes Finlay for two, then drops an elbow for another two. Dean goes for the Texas cloverleaf, but Finlay manages to block, and tag out. Dean corner whips him, but hits an elbow on the charge in, and Taylor delivers a suplex for two. Back to Finlay for a chincrusher, and a bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop. Fit works a chinlock from there, as they take control, and cut the ring in half on Dean. Benoit gets the tag, and runs wild for a bit, before passing back to Dean. Who promptly gets right back into trouble. Taylor misses an avalanche, allowing Dean to try for the cloverleaf again, but Dave fights. Benoit responds by diving in with a flying headbutt drop, which knocks Taylor silly, and allows Dean to get the hold on for the win at 13:49. Good work here, and a great finish. * ¼
Bill Goldberg/Bam Bam Bigelow hype video
Bruise Cruise ad
The Nitro Girls are out to react to what happened to Kimberly last week
WCW tour ad
Bret Hart v Will Sasso: They don’t even really set this up, it’s just sort of there and happening. Bret immediately takes him down, and hits a legdrop, before rolling Sasso to the outside. Bret finds a chair and sits back as Sasso fights to beat the count, and Hart decks him when Will gets to the apron. Bret follows to the outside to choke Sasso with some cable, so Sasso’s co-star Debra Wilson tries to save… and then turns on him. That allows Bret the Sharpshooter at 3:40. This whole deal must have been incredibly confusing for the live crowd, who got zero set up for this. It wasn’t much better for the TV audience. DUD
Wolfpac t-shirt ad
The Wolfpac arrive in their Hummers, and head into the arena, still wearing their Casino gear. Anyway, Hollywood Hulk Hogan offers Flair a shot at the WCW World title right here right now, if he can make it out before the ten count. So a referee starts counting, and of course no Flair, but we get WCW United States Champion Roddy Piper instead. And since Roddy is still acting Commissioner, he’s booking himself against Hogan right now, for the world title
WCW World Title Match: Hollywood Hulk Hogan v Roddy Piper: Gosh, they’re trying to do anything to pop a rating here. Piper’s WCW United States title is not at stake. They scuffle, and Piper gets control in the corner. He sets up for a piledriver, but Hulk just sort of fades to the mat, and Piper has to improvise making it look like an offensive move. I don’t even know how to guess at what happened there. They spill to the outside, where Piper posts him, and back in, Roddy delivers an atomic drop. “He should have had his wallet in his back pocket, that would have protected him,” notes Bobby. Piper with a punch for two, so Hulk swipes at the leg, and they spill back to the outside. Hulk chokes him with a t-shirt out there, and he smacks him with a chair next. Hulk grabs the weight belt for a few shots as they head back in, and Hogan hits a cross corner clothesline ahead of a bootchoke. Piper gets hold of the strap and returns fire, and a corner whip rebounds Hulk into a sleeper. He’s right at center ring with it, but Scott Hall comes in with a taser for the DQ at 5:41. This was embarrassingly bad. It’s almost hard to believe that they worked together a million times because everything they did looked so awkward. -½*
Out in the fields, a rancher finds Flair, and puts him in his truck to get him to safety. Left the poor camera guy behind, though
Scott Steiner’s lawyer reveals that Scott has filed suit against WCW and Diamond Dallas Page for $1,000,000 following Page’s attack on Scott, which has left Steiner unable to work
Kevin Nash and Lex Luger are ready for Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr at SuperBrawl
Out somewhere, the rancher has stopped for gas. Luckily, the camera man was able to catch up with them!
SuperBrawl IX ad
WCW World Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Scotty Riggs and Mike Enos v Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit: Riggs and Malenko start, and Scotty stomps him down in the corner. Riggs with a cross corner whip, but the charge in gets blocked, and Malenko hammers him down. Dean lands a leg lariat, but a criss cross sees Riggs land a dropkick, and he corner whips Dean to set up a corner high knee. Riggs with a bootchoke, and a bodyslam allows the tag to Mike. Enos tries a headbutt drop, but misses, and Benoit tags in. Mike grabs a standing headlock, so Benoit forces a criss cross, and takes him down with a drop-toehold. Chris unloads in the corner, but Enos fights him off, and delivers a press-drop. Mike with a corner whip, and he puts the boots to Benoit in the corner, but stops to gloat, and Chris comes back with chops. Tag to Dean, but he quickly gets into trouble in the corner, and Riggs snapmares him into a chinlock. Dean manages to fight free, and he passes to Benoit for a kneebreaker. The Horsemen work Riggs’ leg, but Mike gets a tag in, and powerslams Malenko. They go to work on Dean, but he manages to suplex Riggs. He goes for the Texas cloverleaf, so Benoit goes up for the dive combo like earlier, but Riggs cradles Dean for two. I love that! Not that it does him much good, as Chris slaps on the crippler crossface at 16:38. A little all over the place, but solid. * ¼
The rancher continues to drive
In a hotel room somewhere, Torrie Wilson kicks her unseen mystery lover out of bed, sending him to go do a certain job for her. That’s not a sexual euphemism, I mean she’s given him a mission, which we aren’t privy too. Well, then maybe it is sexual, we really don’t know
Goldberg/Bigelow hype video
Hogan/Flair hype video
The Wolfpac are back out, and Hogan makes another grandstand challenge to Flair. This time he’ll give him a twenty count instead of a ten, but of course, Flair isn’t here anyway. But, as this goes on, Ric pulls up to the building with the rancher, and Flair basically falls out of the truck in a heap. He picks himself up, finds a weapon, and starts marching down to the ring - though he’s wobbly. He manages to stagger into the ring, but gets his ass kicked again. The Horsemen come out, but they’re greatly outnumbered, and get destroyed as well. This whole angle that’s run the bulk of the show was terrible, and the payoff was even worse
BUExperience: Oh man, this one was rough. The wrestling technically exceeded RAW, but this was some funky butt lovin’.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.