Starting out 1997 with Monday Nitro 1/6/1997. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbysko are on commentary.
--Glacier comes out to an elaborate entrance. Bobby Eaton is already waiting for him in the ring. Eaton looks in poor shape and barely has any vertical when he goes to leap Glacier, causing a botch. Glacier wins a quick match with a kick.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5. Not much here, just a quick setup match to keep the relative newcomer Glacier building. Crowd didn't really seem to care about the match or Glacier at all though.
*
--Video highlight of the nWo and "Big Bubba" (aka Big Bossman) and Konan. Schiavone seems to get mixed up or the video gets screwy otherwise he's summing up past events out of sequence. Chaotic.
Anyways a goateed and somewhat longer haired Big Bubba comes out in a nWo shirt on. He kind of looks like Ted Dibaise at this point. Next out is Konan, already wearing a "Mexican strap" around his neck. Jimmy Hart is with him, for some reason (weird pairing there but I guess that's his normal manager). They both put the strap around their wrists and the "Mexican strap match" begins. Guessing it would just be called a strap match these days.
Bubba touches 3 different corners, but after Konan fights back a bit, it's explained momentum is broken, so he has to "start over" with touching the corners and can't complete the win. Um, ok.
Konan touches three corners. Bubba fights back and punches him and Konan falls into the last corner. Somehow he does not have to start over and is declared the winner. Bubba lays out Konan after the match with a slam.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Liked that they had a video to catch everyone up that Bubba turned on Konan. So they have a personal issue and have been fighting the past few weeks, so there's a mid-card story here. The match itself was decent enough, both the guys working are good wrestlers. The logic used behind the finish was spotty at best.
*
Kevin Sullivan promo in the back. Talking about Chris Benoit and Nancy (Sullivan's ex-wife who is now with Benoit). Sad to look back on given how that story ends in real life.
*
Three of the Four Horseman (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Steve McMichael with Debra) come out for an interview with Mean Gene. They say Benoit isn't here tonight, he's with Nancy. Jeff Jarrett comes out and offers to be a full time horseman instead of Benoit who is only part time. Arn shoots him down, JJ insults Arn and Arn attacks Jarrett.
Anderson beats him up they get in the ring. Fans chant for DDP. Wow this has turned into a match, Jarrett hits a neckbreaker and gets a pin on Arn (with feet on the ropes). The ref counts to 3 and I guess in an impromptu match JJ has won.
Debra is on JJ's side, Mongo backs his wife and Flair is backing Arn. The horsemen aren't on the same page. Flair shakes JJ's hand. Arn still uneasy about it, but it looks like Jarrett is unofficially weaseling in to the Horsemen, courtesy of Debra's backing (she doesn't like Nancy and doesn't want Benoit).
Rating: 4 out of 5. This was entertaining. The Horsemen are in separate camps, Debra is manipulating them around or so it seems.
*
DDP's music hits but he doesn't come out. After a while the Steven Regal music hits and the British TV champion walks to the ring. Hacksaw Jim Duggan comes out to massive pyro, waiving the American flag and carrying his 2x4. Duggan it's explained will be the substitute for this match. But why has DDP has no-showed they tease?
As Regal/Duggan stretch for time before the match, the nWo (Sean Waltman, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff) hi-jack the announce table and kick Schiavone and Zbysko off their own table. Always fun! The bad boys mock DDP a bit somewhat cryptically, then promote their upcoming Souled Out PPV, mostly about the Ms. nWo contest, Bischoff gives out his CNN office address and Nash adds "no fat chicks" and Waltman chimes in with a "yeah, no heinous broads". Politically incorrect, but still sophmorically funny.
Bischoff teases he's signed a new nWo match. Then tries to call the match a bit, remembering the TV title is in fact on the line as this match is well under way. Hacksaw hits Regal with a big punch but the bell rings. Time limit draw. Regal will retain the title but he's laid out.
Hacksaw gets a GIANT WCW flag and waves it around the ring a bit and nWo does nothing but they do leave the broadcast booth.
Rating: 2 out of 5. Mainly used to set a question of what happened to DDP? Fun to see nWo crash the party (literally) but a bit of a trainwreck, as I'm sure they wanted. The match itself meant nothing.
**
Hugh Morrus comes out. Then Jim Powers (with Teddy Long). Morrus wins a quick match with a moonsault which was pretty impressive for such a big guy.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5. This was the last match of the hour, maybe they had to squeeze this in for time constraints of other segments running long, but there was no story here and a very quick match. We'll see if this is used to build Morrus for anything in the future (which I legit do not know).
***
Mike Tenay and the great Bobby Heenan join Schiavone for hour #2. They recap the hour and how the women are hindering and de-unifying the Four Horsemen, really focusing on the troubles of the group not on the same page right now.
Psychosis comes out. Then a not-very-tattooed Rey Mysterio Jr is next. Pyschosis goes off the top rope and pretty much falls on the back of his next on the apron instead of flying a little further to Rey. That looked very bad, but luckily he popped back up.
Some fun, high-flying offense for both, to be expected. A bunch of nice high spots. Rey wins by springing off the top rope into a hurricanrana. Rey says to the camera after that he wants Dean Malenko and Ultimo Dragon to take note and Rey wants the cruiserweight belt back.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Probably one of the best actual wrestling matches on TV this whole week. The cruiserweights always seemed to deliver and this was no different.
****
Kevin Sullivan (with Jimmy Hart) come out. They try to run a video package from the past but the video fails. Whoops. Then Chavo Guerrero Jr enters. Match starts and they fix the replay so they show it late, while the match is going on. The WCW production difference! Add in the 3 announcers talking over each other, arguing and leaving awkward dead air and this hour has been rough.
Sullivan wins a pretty quick match. He has a message for the camera asking where Benoit/Nancy are.
Rating: 1 out of 5. Didn't mean much but at least they kept it short.
****
Video recap of nWo beating up Rowdy Roddy Piper last week. Piper does a stretcher job and is screaming gibberish. Supposedly that was the last night of his career.
****
Alex Wright comes out to the ring. Then it's Eddie Guerrero coming out. They mention Eddie will face Sixx (X-Pac) at the next PPV in a ladder match for the US Title, which Eddie won, but nWo beat him up and Sixx stole the belt and is carrying it.
Midway through the match Sixx comes out with the belt and carries a ladder. He climbs it on the runway and mocks Eddie. Wright gets momentum out of that, but Eddie eventually comes back and wins clean. Eddie runs up the ramp and chases away the cowardly Sixx.
Rating: 2 out of 5. Clearly just setting up the Sixx/Eddie match at the PPV. Wish Sixx's presence would have either led straight to the finish or even cost Eddie the match. Neither of which happened, match just kept meandering on with Sixx sitting up on a ladder for a few minutes.
*****
Canadian national anthem hits and theQuebecers, err the Amazing French Canadian Guys (seriously they're called that) come out to the ring with Robert Parker hilariously dressed up like he's in the French Foreign Legion combined with a pencil thin mustache. Genuinely hilarious. They start singing the anthem on the mike very annoyingly like good heels.
Harlem Heat (with Sister Sherri) comes out to end that, mercifully.
A good tag team match, the heels are in control by cheating, but the good guys fight back and hit a Heat Bomb for the clean win.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Enjoyed it. Fun to watch, especially Booker T. Basic tag team but a good match.
*****
Recap of Sting at Starrcade '96 leaving a baseball bat to help Lex Luger beat The Giant.
******
Meng comes out to the ring. Then Luger comes out with pyro and a good babyface crowd response. Ref goes down as Luger takes control, eventually getting Meng in the torture rack. But Meng's tag partner Barbarian hits the ring to break it up. That barely phases Luger, who beats them both up and hits the rack on Barbarian. The ref comes to and rings the bell for the submission, even though, you know, that wasn't the guy in the match.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5. Yeah, we get it, Luger is trying to be built as an unstoppable star. Just a match to keep adding fuel to his fire and keep the momentum rolling. Nothing particularly good, though the ending was funny/sad that they gave a submission to a guy who wasn't officially in the match. The crowd seemed happy to see Luger but it dulled a bit towards the end.
*******
Hollywood Hogan time, along with Bischoff basically dragging a reluctant Ms. Elizabeth to the ring, who definitely does NOT want to be there. Poor Liz looks kidnapped! The approximate 1094839 other random jabronis in nWo (like Virgil, Buff Bagwell, fake Sting, and ref Nick Patrick) are bowing to Hogan as he struts to the ring.
Bischoff and Hogan get in the ring, trash is already flying in as they start a promo. They mock The Giant and he beats everyone up one by one until it's just Hogan and Bischoff in the ring with the big guy. Hogan drills Giant with a chair to the back from behind and the 232390 members of the nWo get back in the ring and beat him up. Hogan with some really weak chairshots to Giant's head. They leave him in a heap in the ring as they go back to the announce table.
Sting heads to the ring. He says something to the Giant then points his bat towards the nWo. Sting leaves. They send Virgil to the ring. Giant comes to his senses and chokeslams poor Vincent. nWo rushes to the ring but Giant has the baseball bat as the show goes off the air.
Overall rating: 4 out of 10. Better show than Raw, if but barely. This show set the groundwork as the company moves towards Souled Out. Some good story with the Horsemen in their internal disarray, and the nWo running roughshod over basically the rest of the night where it mattered.
--Glacier comes out to an elaborate entrance. Bobby Eaton is already waiting for him in the ring. Eaton looks in poor shape and barely has any vertical when he goes to leap Glacier, causing a botch. Glacier wins a quick match with a kick.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5. Not much here, just a quick setup match to keep the relative newcomer Glacier building. Crowd didn't really seem to care about the match or Glacier at all though.
*
--Video highlight of the nWo and "Big Bubba" (aka Big Bossman) and Konan. Schiavone seems to get mixed up or the video gets screwy otherwise he's summing up past events out of sequence. Chaotic.
Anyways a goateed and somewhat longer haired Big Bubba comes out in a nWo shirt on. He kind of looks like Ted Dibaise at this point. Next out is Konan, already wearing a "Mexican strap" around his neck. Jimmy Hart is with him, for some reason (weird pairing there but I guess that's his normal manager). They both put the strap around their wrists and the "Mexican strap match" begins. Guessing it would just be called a strap match these days.
Bubba touches 3 different corners, but after Konan fights back a bit, it's explained momentum is broken, so he has to "start over" with touching the corners and can't complete the win. Um, ok.
Konan touches three corners. Bubba fights back and punches him and Konan falls into the last corner. Somehow he does not have to start over and is declared the winner. Bubba lays out Konan after the match with a slam.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Liked that they had a video to catch everyone up that Bubba turned on Konan. So they have a personal issue and have been fighting the past few weeks, so there's a mid-card story here. The match itself was decent enough, both the guys working are good wrestlers. The logic used behind the finish was spotty at best.
*
Kevin Sullivan promo in the back. Talking about Chris Benoit and Nancy (Sullivan's ex-wife who is now with Benoit). Sad to look back on given how that story ends in real life.
*
Three of the Four Horseman (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Steve McMichael with Debra) come out for an interview with Mean Gene. They say Benoit isn't here tonight, he's with Nancy. Jeff Jarrett comes out and offers to be a full time horseman instead of Benoit who is only part time. Arn shoots him down, JJ insults Arn and Arn attacks Jarrett.
Anderson beats him up they get in the ring. Fans chant for DDP. Wow this has turned into a match, Jarrett hits a neckbreaker and gets a pin on Arn (with feet on the ropes). The ref counts to 3 and I guess in an impromptu match JJ has won.
Debra is on JJ's side, Mongo backs his wife and Flair is backing Arn. The horsemen aren't on the same page. Flair shakes JJ's hand. Arn still uneasy about it, but it looks like Jarrett is unofficially weaseling in to the Horsemen, courtesy of Debra's backing (she doesn't like Nancy and doesn't want Benoit).
Rating: 4 out of 5. This was entertaining. The Horsemen are in separate camps, Debra is manipulating them around or so it seems.
*
DDP's music hits but he doesn't come out. After a while the Steven Regal music hits and the British TV champion walks to the ring. Hacksaw Jim Duggan comes out to massive pyro, waiving the American flag and carrying his 2x4. Duggan it's explained will be the substitute for this match. But why has DDP has no-showed they tease?
As Regal/Duggan stretch for time before the match, the nWo (Sean Waltman, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff) hi-jack the announce table and kick Schiavone and Zbysko off their own table. Always fun! The bad boys mock DDP a bit somewhat cryptically, then promote their upcoming Souled Out PPV, mostly about the Ms. nWo contest, Bischoff gives out his CNN office address and Nash adds "no fat chicks" and Waltman chimes in with a "yeah, no heinous broads". Politically incorrect, but still sophmorically funny.
Bischoff teases he's signed a new nWo match. Then tries to call the match a bit, remembering the TV title is in fact on the line as this match is well under way. Hacksaw hits Regal with a big punch but the bell rings. Time limit draw. Regal will retain the title but he's laid out.
Hacksaw gets a GIANT WCW flag and waves it around the ring a bit and nWo does nothing but they do leave the broadcast booth.
Rating: 2 out of 5. Mainly used to set a question of what happened to DDP? Fun to see nWo crash the party (literally) but a bit of a trainwreck, as I'm sure they wanted. The match itself meant nothing.
**
Hugh Morrus comes out. Then Jim Powers (with Teddy Long). Morrus wins a quick match with a moonsault which was pretty impressive for such a big guy.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5. This was the last match of the hour, maybe they had to squeeze this in for time constraints of other segments running long, but there was no story here and a very quick match. We'll see if this is used to build Morrus for anything in the future (which I legit do not know).
***
Mike Tenay and the great Bobby Heenan join Schiavone for hour #2. They recap the hour and how the women are hindering and de-unifying the Four Horsemen, really focusing on the troubles of the group not on the same page right now.
Psychosis comes out. Then a not-very-tattooed Rey Mysterio Jr is next. Pyschosis goes off the top rope and pretty much falls on the back of his next on the apron instead of flying a little further to Rey. That looked very bad, but luckily he popped back up.
Some fun, high-flying offense for both, to be expected. A bunch of nice high spots. Rey wins by springing off the top rope into a hurricanrana. Rey says to the camera after that he wants Dean Malenko and Ultimo Dragon to take note and Rey wants the cruiserweight belt back.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Probably one of the best actual wrestling matches on TV this whole week. The cruiserweights always seemed to deliver and this was no different.
****
Kevin Sullivan (with Jimmy Hart) come out. They try to run a video package from the past but the video fails. Whoops. Then Chavo Guerrero Jr enters. Match starts and they fix the replay so they show it late, while the match is going on. The WCW production difference! Add in the 3 announcers talking over each other, arguing and leaving awkward dead air and this hour has been rough.
Sullivan wins a pretty quick match. He has a message for the camera asking where Benoit/Nancy are.
Rating: 1 out of 5. Didn't mean much but at least they kept it short.
****
Video recap of nWo beating up Rowdy Roddy Piper last week. Piper does a stretcher job and is screaming gibberish. Supposedly that was the last night of his career.
****
Alex Wright comes out to the ring. Then it's Eddie Guerrero coming out. They mention Eddie will face Sixx (X-Pac) at the next PPV in a ladder match for the US Title, which Eddie won, but nWo beat him up and Sixx stole the belt and is carrying it.
Midway through the match Sixx comes out with the belt and carries a ladder. He climbs it on the runway and mocks Eddie. Wright gets momentum out of that, but Eddie eventually comes back and wins clean. Eddie runs up the ramp and chases away the cowardly Sixx.
Rating: 2 out of 5. Clearly just setting up the Sixx/Eddie match at the PPV. Wish Sixx's presence would have either led straight to the finish or even cost Eddie the match. Neither of which happened, match just kept meandering on with Sixx sitting up on a ladder for a few minutes.
*****
Canadian national anthem hits and the
Harlem Heat (with Sister Sherri) comes out to end that, mercifully.
A good tag team match, the heels are in control by cheating, but the good guys fight back and hit a Heat Bomb for the clean win.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Enjoyed it. Fun to watch, especially Booker T. Basic tag team but a good match.
*****
Recap of Sting at Starrcade '96 leaving a baseball bat to help Lex Luger beat The Giant.
******
Meng comes out to the ring. Then Luger comes out with pyro and a good babyface crowd response. Ref goes down as Luger takes control, eventually getting Meng in the torture rack. But Meng's tag partner Barbarian hits the ring to break it up. That barely phases Luger, who beats them both up and hits the rack on Barbarian. The ref comes to and rings the bell for the submission, even though, you know, that wasn't the guy in the match.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5. Yeah, we get it, Luger is trying to be built as an unstoppable star. Just a match to keep adding fuel to his fire and keep the momentum rolling. Nothing particularly good, though the ending was funny/sad that they gave a submission to a guy who wasn't officially in the match. The crowd seemed happy to see Luger but it dulled a bit towards the end.
*******
Hollywood Hogan time, along with Bischoff basically dragging a reluctant Ms. Elizabeth to the ring, who definitely does NOT want to be there. Poor Liz looks kidnapped! The approximate 1094839 other random jabronis in nWo (like Virgil, Buff Bagwell, fake Sting, and ref Nick Patrick) are bowing to Hogan as he struts to the ring.
Bischoff and Hogan get in the ring, trash is already flying in as they start a promo. They mock The Giant and he beats everyone up one by one until it's just Hogan and Bischoff in the ring with the big guy. Hogan drills Giant with a chair to the back from behind and the 232390 members of the nWo get back in the ring and beat him up. Hogan with some really weak chairshots to Giant's head. They leave him in a heap in the ring as they go back to the announce table.
Sting heads to the ring. He says something to the Giant then points his bat towards the nWo. Sting leaves. They send Virgil to the ring. Giant comes to his senses and chokeslams poor Vincent. nWo rushes to the ring but Giant has the baseball bat as the show goes off the air.
Overall rating: 4 out of 10. Better show than Raw, if but barely. This show set the groundwork as the company moves towards Souled Out. Some good story with the Horsemen in their internal disarray, and the nWo running roughshod over basically the rest of the night where it mattered.
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