OOOLD SCHOOOOL

[Maverick]

Thanks for posting Raid, cracking read. Iv'e always had a soft spot for Lex and enjoyed alot of his in ring work, especially the late 80's and 96-98

[air_raid]

I only just woke up. Typing that up took much longer than I thought it would.

 

Its pretty shocking to think there was never any plans to put the belt on him at SS 93. That's insanity after all the money they spent on the Lex Express tour.

 

It's mental isn't it? Everything they did from the Intrepid right up until bell time pointed one way. Bodyslamming 'Zuna, the Call To Action, the heart to heart interview with Vince on Raw, the "no rematch" clause, music videos, Aaron Neville, everything - it all painted the picture of "this fat fuck has denigrated our belt and our country, Lex is coming to save us." And then he didn't.

 

By coincidence, Fin's ongoing "History of the WWF/WWE Championship" series goes through the same period this month. This is what he says about SummerSlam '93 :

 

To distract fans from the count out finish at SummerSlam and the realisation that Luger had failed to win the WWF title from Yokozuna in what was supposed to be his only chance, the WWF sent the Steiners, Tatanka and Randy Savage into the ring to congratulate him, and dropped red, white and blue balloons from the ceiling, as if it were a Presidential campaign rally. "Lex Luger, unquestionably an American hero, if ever there was one," shrieked McMahon on commentary. Meanwhile, McMahon prepared his audience for what was then planned for WrestleMania X on March 20, 1994 : "You can bet there will be so much pressure on WWF President Jack Tunney," bellowed McMahon. "You can bet that Lex Luger will get his rematch, and when he does, Lex Luger will be the World Wrestling Federation champion!"

 

It's impossible to state with certainty how popular Luger would have become, had he defeated Yokozuna for the WWF title at SummerSlam, as most expected. The finish was an anticlimax after all the flag-waving; and the post-match celebration must have seemed absurd to even the giddiest fan, once he had time to digest what had happened. Luger had done what no babyface should ever do: failed his fans in the big match on the big show.

 

- That last line is fucking cobblers. Babyfaces have "failed their fans" and lost big matches for decades.

 

I must admit, I get a kick out of Luger's camp little jump for joy (woo-oo!) after the ref calls for the bell - even though it's ludicrous. "Yes!! I haven't won the belt!!"

[CTXRussomark]

I still can't comprehend what they were thinking with the finish. The fans knew by 1993 that a babyface winning by countout was not a cause for celebration. They all knew it was a cop-out finish used to cheat the babyface out of the title and to continue building to the eventual title change. They completely cut Luger's balls off and made him look like a retard with his reaction and celebration after the countout. Why would anyone want to cheer him after that? Even if they didn't want the belt on Luger there were other ways of doing it without making him look like a complete idiot.

[air_raid]

I'm up to SuperBrawl VI now, the night everyone appears to have been drinking heavily.

 

** The show is less than a minute old when Tony Schiavone has already busted out "the number one wrestling organization in the world" and "this great sport." Steady on big Tone, anybody playing the WCW Drinking Game is going to fucking legless before Dusty even speaks! Additional note added retrospectively - any fans tonight that DID watch the PPV while drinking heavily were in good company, as you'll come to find out.

 

** The first music I hear is Public Enemy's. As ever, this fills me with dread. They are however fighting the Nasty Boys under streetfight rules, so this might be OK like the one at the Clash. Plus the Dream might piss himself at the plundah, like he did at Uncensored '97. “We talkin' about a lot of clubberin' going on in this big confrontation here. This is goin' to be a furniture-moving type situation here.” Fuck me, he's off already. The match is 30 seconds old when Rocco gets a table and about 60 seconds old when Sags brains him with a chair then hits him four more times. Hopes raised. Not long after, Knobbs throws Rocco off the apron through a table and goes for the pin, so this is one of those "falls count anywhere" streetfights. Or if you like, a "falls count anywhere match". Later called a "hardcore match." Fuck me, wrestling has far too many ways of describing the exact same thing.

 

** Dusty : "He's got some plundah he ain't used yet!" Drink. Sags piledrives Grunge on a dustbin but Grunge gets a foot on the rope. They both get back to their feet and Grunge immediately goes on the offensive. Terrible selling. Over by the concession stand, Knobbs suplexes Rocco through another table. He goes for the pin but - hah! - the ref is over with the other pair. They all hit each other with bin lids and chairs for a bit. Rocco goes for a somersault senton off the concession stand through a table, Knobbs moves, Flyboy crashes and burns. Knobbs pins. Fuck, that was actually fun, and much like the previous meeting, played to their strengths.

 

** Gene shills his hotline on the rumour that "two former World Wrestling Federation champions" might be on their way in. Hey, if by "champions" he means ANY champion not necessarily THE champion (like small time indy dickmelons do when they're plugging Shelton coming in) then for once, he ain't lying. Well, I'm assuming he's talking about Diesel and Razor, but knowing Gene, he's probably talking about Warrior and Undertaker. He then says "meshugganah" while throwing it back out to David Penzer at ringside, and is a little red-faced. I think he's been drinking.

 

** Brain starts riffing about Diamond Dallas Page's charity work - he mentions the "Save the red birch society - there's a tree over in Bolivia he gives money to" and mutters something about a "spotted owl or striped owl." Has Bobby also been drinking???

 

** Kimberly shoots out of the entrance with a cartwheel before leading Johnny B Badd out then does a splits in the ring. I can't help but think - look away Houchen - that she'd be unbelievable in bed. It's weird seeing Mero coming out all razamatazz, defending a title so close to his defection. DDP looks like utter crap in comparison, with some rubbish generic tights that wouldn't look out of place on a Warzone CAW or a Worldwide jobber called Damon Striker or something.

 

** An amazing Dusty breakdown takes place when they're fighting outside the ring : "Well, two things are, are, Bobby, are, are, are, are for real right here..." It's incredible! It sounds like someone's sampled Dusty and remixed him. I nearly pissed myself. Dusty's DEFINITELY been drinking.

 

** Brain get his own remix : "She'll, she, she'll, she, she could, she could have six million dollars!" Pisshead.

 

** The two men battle over a backslide and through force of habit, I expect Dallas to spin Badd around and Diamond Cut him. Seconds later there is a running-the-ropes spot. "Go Johnny Go!" shouts Dusty, and for a split second I think he's breaking into song. Johnny nails DDP with a Ligerbomb which looks great. Some of the roll up near falls are a bit sloppy, weak or unconvincing, so when Johnny finally lamps Page with a Tombstone, it's refreshingly believable for the finish.

 

** Tony : "Take the cheque (and) lady, go home, you deserve every penny of it, plus OBVIOUSLY more!" Huh? What a strange thing to say. Is TV champ Johnny B Badd an underpaid, underappreciated talent that OBVIOUSLY deserves more than $6.6 million, or has Tony been drinking??

 

** The gist of Harlem Heat's interview seems to be "Luger's a cheating cunt, and Sting's guilty by association." Hey, they've got a point. Booker looks tiny stood next to Stevie, and Booker was/is a big guy! Unfortunately the smacktalk is left to Booker, who thinks Luger and Sting are "sissyfied suckahs and "a couple of college punks" whereas Saint Stevie would no doubt have called them milk-drinking doughnut-eating fruit booties. Booker gets off a brilliant line about the Road Warriors being has-beens : "You know like I always say, the (??) WAS a good car. This ain't 1976, this 1996, and the Harlem Heat is taking the tag team picture straight into the future if you understand what I'm talking about SUCKAH!" Stevie adds "Can you dig it?"

 

** "Man Called Sting" might be cheesy as fuck and far from the most imposing theme of all time, but hearing it start still makes me think "OK, it's Go Time!" The best example of all time, of course, being at Bash at the Beach with the Outsiders waiting. Who's bad now boys? Hilariously, Luger acts shit-scared of his own pyro. He's also mostly scared of Harlem Heat for most of their dull little match (featuring a Stevie Ray nerve hold) where Schiavone says the match has been going on ten minutes in the middle of the heat on Luger, which is an utter lie. The match in total only goes 11 minutes. Animal sneaks into the ring and smacks Stevie in the gut with something, Lex backdrops him and flops on top for the pin. Massive BOOS for the Road Warriors interfering. They've settled into Sting being oblivious to Luger being a cunt and the two being buddy-buddy, which is a much funnier dynamic than them arguing.

 

** "We are the champions again, I can't believe it Package!" shouts Sting. Err... you've been champions three weeks. Have you been drinking, Stinger?

 

** Having seen Konnan v One Man Gang once in my life, I'm not prepared to watch it again, sorry. But Brain thinks Konnan is "lucky to get out alive" from his pro wrestling match with the Gang. REALLY?? You've been fucking drinking.

 

** Gene thinks it's appropriate to mention the broken sewer pipe, live on the PPV. Cheers Gene, you're pissed.

 

** Kevin Sullivan vs Brian Pillman. Wow, so much to say about so little. The two brawl stiffly - "the darndest fight we'd ever seen" according to Schiavone - for about a minute, then Pillman goes and grabs the mic from the scared-looking ref and says "I respect you, booker man" and leaves with a grin. Pillman walks down the aisle looking smug, and we cut away just as he gives the crowd the middle finger. Nobody but Sully obviously know what's going on, so Brain goes into auto-pilot talking about how tough Sullivan is, and Dusty talks about his plans for Hogan later. Jimmy Hart, clueless, runs backstage and emerges with Arn Anderson, also clueless. There's fuck-all kayfabe here, the Mouth has run back and blatantly squalked that Pillman's gone into business for himself and we need a match. It looks weird Jimmy bringing someone else out for his mate to fight. Hey, nice shorts Arn.

 

They do their best to talk about the hostilities between the Horsemen and the Dungeon throughout the rest of the match without mentioning Pillman or what just happened again. Presumably, they all expect Pillman to be sacked. Jimmy Hart comes bounding back up the aisle (I didn't even see him go) with Ric Flair. He persuades Arn and Sullivan to stop fighting. Probably because someone in the back is panicking that it's time for the next match, and none of the three men in the ring (including the ref) know what's going on. Watching though, it comes across that Hart went to get Arn to start a fight, then changed his mind and went and got Flair to break it up. Flair threatens a fan that he'll "take your wife home and make a woman out of her." WHOOO!! He then says tonight "I'm taking the belt and Liz!" I believe him. Mild "Hogan" chants.

 

** Jimmy has sprinted back to the back for his interview with the Giant, who rants and raves like a slightly more eloquent Warrior. Jimmy mentions Hogan's "B-grade flicks." That's kind.

 

** A guy ringside has made a "Road Warriors Rule" sign on an A4 piece of yellow card. What's the point? The champs come back out and "Man Called Sting" plays for the third time. Luger must be pissed off about that, when does he get to hear his tune?? Luger teases walking off before the match even starts. What happened to my hero? The Intrepid seems forever ago now! At the start of the match I notice that Sting hasn't washed off his worn facepaint and put fresh on. They'd have done that in the WWF, I reckon, for a guy as big time as Real Estate Steve.

 

** Luger keeps coming back to the ring but won't fight as long as the LOD have their spikes on. Well, that makes sense! Hawk and Animal look like muppets for not taking them off so they can get their title match started. Tony "Redknapp" Schiavone : "Luger is LITERALLY scared to death." Ugh. Way too much stalling here. When the match starts, Animal takes an armbar for ages - the commentators mention how out of character this is - then Sting grabs a headlock for ages. This is dull. Stinger hits the "accidental collapse/headbutt to the groin" before making the lukewarm tag to Flex. Eventually, not long after Sting and Animal no-sell each others' suplexes, the brawl starts that spills outside and ends in the double count-out. Fuck me, that was shit.

 

** Flair and Woman have their interview with Mean Gene. Flair refers to "Hogan's master plot" and a "feeble attempt at turning the Taskmaster against Arn Anderson." Ummm.... is that what was going on?? I blame Jimmy Hart, personally. I would say "Flair's been drinking" but that's pretty obvious. Woman's dress matches Flair's robe and she looks amazing. Her caressing Mean Gene by the lapels is in it's infancy here and is subtle. Flair says before the match Savage is going to tell Liz "I'm gonna sweat, I'm gonna bleed, and Flair might take you home!" Stick with Woman, Naitch. I doubt she'd steer you wrong.

 

** Here comes the CAGE!!! And it has it's own music!!

 

** Gene tries to get a word with Liz, and Randy Savage barges in before she barely gets out a word. Prick. No wonder she dumps him, she's made to look totally subservient. Get Booker T back out to remind Macho Man it's not 1956, he can't treat his woman like a second-class citizen! Liz' cans watch : still modest.

 

** Incredible insight into Dusty's school days : "It's like when you in high school, and you had your girl and Bobby had his, and I said meet me down at the pond, in the back of the old shed, we got an old chicken wire cage there, let the girls stand outside, and let's get it on inside." Fucking hell, what a life he's led. Either that, or there isn't a drop of peach Schnapps left in Florida.

 

** Flair harrasses/hits on Liz before the match, and she shakes her head no, but she smiles amused instead of acting reviled like she would have in the old days. Feisty one, you are. A ref bump comes really early, Savage gets a backslide with nobody there to count, and then the ref recovers quite quickly. Seemed a bit pointless.

 

** Dusty puts over Savage's resilience, then they do the spot where Flair goes up the ropes and Savage catches him and throws him off. As Tony tries to point out how apt Dusty's last point was, the Dream slurs "out of the mouth of babes." WHAT?? Savage applies the Figure-Four. Flair reaches the ropes, but the ref kicks Flair's hand off instead of calling a break. I hate that. That's not your job ref. Plus, it's no DQ, but that does NOT equate to "ropes don't break a hold or pinfall." It might mean you can't disqualify Savage if he refuses to break, but it doesn't give you the right to kick Ric fucking Flair.

 

** Tony : "This is why we are tops, it's because of what we have IN THE RING, (which is) why we're Number One." Nice line, inferring that WCW has the better wrestling compared to the WWF. In tandem with Bischoff's line the other week about "unicorns and elves" you get where they're coming from.

 

** They do the spot where Flair gets his tights pulled down, then he gets crotched on the top rope. Savage covers, and the kick out is so near (if not beyond) the point the ref's hand SHOULD have hit the mat, the time keeper rings the bell. Clownshoes. Flair and Savage go over to the other corner, and they do the mooning spot AGAIN! Is there a fan in the building that hasn't see Ric Flair's arse by this point?? Is there a WCW fan ALIVE that hasn't seen Ric Flair's arse??

 

** Woman tries to throw powder at Savage but he ducks. Liz hands her shoe to Flair and the place boos. Savage schoolboys Flair and his arse comes out AGAIN, then when they regain their feet Flair pops Macho Man in the face with the shoe for the win and the title. Mostly boos, being Florida (Savage country) but some visible jumping for joy from some hardcore JCP fans for their stalwart winning the belt back from the WWF guy.

 

** Hogan runs off Flair and Arn (who had come down in the interim) and tries to get to Liz, but she's too quick. Hulkster helps Savage back to the locker room to mild "Hogan sucks" chants. Schiavone : "His thirteenth title win, is his most devious and his most incredible." I really have to disagree on both counts. Hogan cuts his usual ranting promo with Gene. Hogan says the match is non-sanctioned and that the only way to win his match with Giant is to escape the cage. Rats, I'd forgotten that.

 

** Buffer announces The Giant as "the man who literally returned from the dead last October at WCW's Halloween Havoc" and again refers to the Mouth as "the dapper Gentleman Jimmy Hart" before calling Giant the "dynamic dominator." FUCK ME RAGGED, that's terrible. I don't know where to start. Hogan meanwhile weighs "274 and one half pounds" is "one of the most famous individuals on the planet Earth" and "his wrestling skills place him among the all-time great in the history of professional wrestling" - "The King of Hulkamania.... The Hulkster..... Hulk Hogan!" What a steaming heap of nonsense.

 

** Tony refers to the Giant as "the legacy of Andre" and Bobby says "he's doing it for his father." Give it a rest lads, nobody buys it.

 

** Tony points out he's surprised that Giant hasn't gone for the injured eye yet, and Dusty points out he didn't have chance earlier because he was "so rag-tagged." Puts me in mind of my favourite Dream quote ever : "HE'S-A RAG-TAGGING ON HIS BELLY-WELLY!!" I wish I was making that up, I think it's from the aforementioned Uncensored '97, another show where lots of guys had a few drinks. If you've seen ANY early Hogan-Giant match, you know what the bulk of this is going to be like. Plodding, with the occasional cage spot. And a nice long bearhug. Yawn.

 

** Brain points out there is a "hitch" in the chokeslam. Well done Brain, we already noticed it looked crap. Hogan gets up, bounces Giant into the cage numerous times, boot, posing, bodyslam - YOU CAN ALREADY SEE PEOPLE LEAVING - three legdrops. Giant gets up and follows Hogan up to the top rope. The two chop each other standing on the top rope which actually looks cool. Hogan rakes the eyes, punches him, then Giant takes a bump back to the floor. In my Hasbro fed, Hogan usually followed this spot with a legdrop from the top rope. Sadly, he just leaves the cage instead. Sully hits Hogan with a chair. Hugh Morrus and the WWF has-been crew come down - Gang, Beefcake, Earthquake, Barbar and Haku. What, they couldn't get Warload to hang around too? Hogan has no problems dealing with all of them, then "The Loch Ness Monster" (Giant Haystacks, as you all probably know) waddles down. The Dungeon hold him back from getting in the ring. I would, Hogan just beat up eight guys by himself.

 

** In hyping up Nitro tomorrow night, Big Tone thinks it's worth mentioning "the debut of "Dangerous" Devon Storm" - go home Schiavone, you're drunk.

 

We fade to black.

[PowerButchi]

Florida isn't Savage country. *shakes head and tuts*. Flair's got far more history there, rather than Savage who spent all his time in KY and TN and pretended to come from FL. Florida is Rhodes Country. He should have got in there.

 

And Devon Storm's debut was ace. Him and Ace Darling (Indy hero for the late 90s early 00s thread) getting twatted.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I recently watched the Dusty Rhodes documentary from a few years back. Fucking loved it. Have you seen it Butch?

[PowerButchi]

Certainly have. If I was fat enough I'd have Stardust bumming Barry Windham as Lawler watches and wanks tattooed on my gut. So looking forward to his inevitable appearance on RAW in a week or two.

 

Dusty Rhodes is Pro Wrestling. His delivery of "make it good" when he gets his arm fucked with a baseball bat by the Horsemen is perfect.

 

 

Shit. Cody's coming back as the Midnight Rider, isn't he?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The Crockett documentary is good as well. I love the ending of it. Most people swat off blame and point fingers why a company went down but Crockett ...

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

basically said "yeah, my fault. Shouldn't have bought that second plane".

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close();

[PowerButchi]

Plane, took over Watts' massive office in Houston instead of selling it for prime real estate, and paying off Ric Flair's debts since about 1979...

[air_raid]

Florida isn't Savage country. *shakes head and tuts*. Flair's got far more history there, rather than Savage who spent all his time in KY and TN and pretended to come from FL.

 

Yeah, but wrestling fans were simple creatures. He's been billed as from "Sarasota, Florida" on national TV for ten years at this point, there'll be plenty of people who got behind him because he was "their guy", just like Scotland always went mental for the Canadian Roddy Piper, whose accent wasn't remotely Scottish.

[PowerButchi]

True, but at most Nitros and the like Flair was KING in Florida. old NWA states are Horsemen country.

 

Other than Texas, weirdly. In 1998 they were cock hungry for the nWo.

[air_raid]

And Devon Storm's debut was ace. Him and Ace Darling (Indy hero for the late 90s early 00s thread) getting twatted.

 

Different debut. This is Storm's Nitro debut, which is a messy bout with Gonad Konnan. More details when I re-watch that episode. Probably tomorrow. Storm and Darling wrestled each other on a Raw in '97 didn't they, during that period where you'd have Candido wrestling Too Sexy, and Flash Flanagan and fucking anybody would turn up. Usually with Sunny doing the ring announcing.

[air_raid]

Done watched two more Nitros.

 

** They kill the mystique about the Pillman deal by talking about what happened - with still photos - the night after. Straight away if you were thinking "something was up" because of how weird the deal went down (and Arn's shorts) then ironically, actually talking about Pillman the night after would convince me it was 100% work and he was still part of the company, even though most of the people involved didn't actually know what was going on.

 

** "Something tells me it will (happen)" says Eric in respect to Hogan v Loch Ness - thank fuck it didn't.

 

** Savage comes out for his match with Hugh Morrus sans hat, shades and jacket. He used to be brilliant at "I'm fucked off" performances. He still sells like a champ for Hugh though. Ultimately he avoids No Laughing Matter and hits TWO big elbows - because he's so fucked off - for the win. Actually, wouldn't have hurt doing the finish of him wanting to go up again then shoving the ref for trying to talk him out of it and getting disqualified, to sell just HOW livid he is, but maybe I'm remembering a finish from a '95 match or one that's yet to come. Bischoff mentions "there's been bad blood between these four guys (Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sullivan) for a long, long time." You're not fucking kidding. Feels like decades.

 

** Gene interviews Steve Grissom, racecar driver. Because this makes me want to watch WCW wrestling TV or their next wrestling PPV.

 

** Scotty Riggs comes out and for the first time I realize the lyrics to the American Males theme include "If they want to talk, you better not listen, you might wind up in critical condition" - fuck me senseless, that's lame. Haystacks is formally introduced as Loch Ness. Bischoff makes a crack about Nessie's dental work. All Brits have bad teeth, ho ho ho, they never get tired of that, do they? They fuck up Nessie catching Riggs on a top rope crossbody, which essentially kills his WCW career dead. Nessie drops two elbow drops, and pins. Well, that was utter nothing. For a match where Ness had chance to show what he could do, turns out it's nothing.

 

** Flair comes out for his celebration interview with Liz & Woman - that's ~HEEL Liz, who is automatically hotter. The black dress, CFM boots and smugness helps.

 

** Devon Storm has his debut match against Konnan. Unfortunately, Bisch, Sully et al haven't figured out that Konnan isn't really the right guy to make your debut against. He has to sell for ages while Storm gets a chair from under the ring, sets it up, then uses it to do a naff tope con hilo that plenty of guys on the planet at the time could do without a chair. He sits Konnan on the chair and goes for a stair-assisted rana, so Konnan logically catches him and powerbombs on the cement. Storm is back on his feet and reversing an Irish Whip with no ill-effects inside a minute. At one point after a Konnan rana, Storm backs himself into the ropes and goes to throw himself across before K-Dog actually lays a hand on him, which he eventually does with a half-arsed shove in the back. This is dreadful. Konnan busts out a Stryker Lock, which is appropriate because I hated Matt Stryker almost as much as I hate Konnan right now. Everything either looks sloppy or contrived. Konnan reverses a sunset flip to the floor into a rana which might have been a scintilating sequence between two smoother talents that were over, but Tampa doesn't give a shit. Devon goes for a top rope rana, Konnan powerbombs him hard, over-rotates on his jacknife pin so Devon is nearly laying facedown, rolls him back over and pins. Rubbish.

 

** You might not hear over Bischoff, but Dave Penzer introduces Arn as "representing the Dungeon of Doom." He's obviously still got some alcohol left in his system from last night. Double A comes out with Woman. I love you both, but in very different ways. Fairly normal Hogan match until Flair comes down for distraction. Hogan does the Nature Boy strut then puts Arn in the Figure 4. I can't help but love that man. A combination of powder in the eyes from Woman and Double A belting him with one of Liz' boots is enough to kill Hulkamania. I mean, get the three. One or two hardcores jump for joy again. Hogan is as gracious in defeat as ever and gives big boots to both Flair and Arn. Macho Man comes out and Hogan runs Flair into a chair held up by Savage.

 

** Mongo : "Elizabeth has gone too far now. One thing it's Macho, but to do it to the Hulkster, I don't - this is just, this is outrageous!!" Fucking hell, McMichael has taken this one personally. Do him, Debs, Hulk and Linda go swinging together or something?

 

** Flair, Arn and the girls take over the desk. Arn : "No, the sky is not falling. No, it's not the end of time. Yes, Arn Anderson just beat the great, unbeatable Hulk Hogan. I've done it once, and I can do it again." Jesus, I want to be a Horseman. At least, I want to be in THAT Horsemen.

 

** That was actually a fairly weak episode, let down by an abysmal middle and the commentary team not having their usual sparkle. Bischoff didn't even tell me what's happening on Raw! (EDIT - there was no Raw, dumbass) The most interesting bit of verbage was Eric pimping Chained Heat II starring Brigitte Neilsen. Might give that a go.

 

** 19th Feb kicks off with actual car racing FOOTAGE of Team WCW. Who gives a fuck??

 

** Opening match is Hogan v Arn rematch. It's Woman wearing the LBD tonight, hubba hubba. When rattling off the WCW involvement in the forthcoming episode of Baywatch, Bischoff mentions "the guy that left here, tail tucked between his legs, of course we're talking about Vader, on the receiving end of a rather physical conversation with Paul Orndorff, I believe, in the locker room not long ago." Good stuff. Really good boos and "Hogan Sucks" chants at different points. Eric's talking about Steve Grissom and the car racing again. SHUT THE FUCK UP.

 

** Bischoff mentions "The Loch Ness Monster, from England" - obviously didn't come straight from the Loch to WCW then. Brain describes him as "pretty close to 700lbs." Wow, it was only 600 last week. Neither is accurate, obviously.

 

** Kevin Sullivan tries to get into the ring behind Nick Patrick's back, so Randy Savage gets in to clear Sullivan out. Patrick turns around and sees only Savage in the ring that shouldn't be, and disqualifies Hogan. Fucking insane levels of inconsistency here. Savage never touched Anderson, and last week Flair got in and was close enough to Hogan for the Hulk to small package him while holding Arn in the Figure-4, and the ref didn't bat an eyelid. Ridiculous finish. Patrick's always been bent.

 

** Now this Steve Grissom bloke is actually in front of the live crowd being interviewed about the racing by Mean Gene!! This is utterly ridiculous!! How many people are switching over right now?? That bloke you were just slagging off is killing Horowitz and Aldo like the scrubs they are, AND the Warrior's coming back.

 

** Bischoff busts out "back leg round kick" during Alex Wright v Loch Ness. Ness has some grandiose horror movie type music instead of the Dungeon theme. The sum total of his offense is maring Alex off his back out of a sleeper, a bear hug, a big boot and an elbow drop. Sid Vicious vs Lee Scott, it ain't. After the match Ness gobs on the camera while shouting something I can't understand, other than "Hogan." No chance mate.

 

** Bischoff runs through the line-up for Saturday Night which includes Johnny B Badd v Chris Benoit. Wish I'd watched that instead.

 

** Belfast Bruiser v Brad Armstrong now. Fucking hell, this should be good. Even Mongo says "we had to bring this back because it was too entertaining" in respect to their last match ending by DQ. Quality tache/mullet combo on Finlay. Brad's hair isn't short eiither. Execution here is fucking amazing, first with Bruiser's snap mare and headlock takeover, then Armstrong with a hiptoss where he too goes down to the mat, then HURLS himself up into the air for a headlock takeover. He makes it look like he puts his whole body into every move, and it looks ace. Did Brad ever work Kid? I need to see it if he did. Some legwork from Bruiser including the hold later called the Haas Of Pain. Brad makes a comeback and hits a lovely side-on back suplex, but runs into a tilt-a-whirl slam, which I buy for the finish. Short and sweet.

 

** After Nitro, Teen Wolf Too (starring Jason Bateman). Aces.

 

** Flair comes out with Liz & Woman for his title defence againt Macho Man (Champion out first? Terrible). Liz has graduated to a black leather mini-skirt, matching jacket with sparkly bits and a top underneath that looks rather like a basque and is definitely more "push-up" than her usual attire. Jay-zus. Of course before the match starts, we have to have one last look at Steve Grissom, who has taken his seat to watch. Savage holds a Figure-4 WAY beyond the five after Flair has reached the ropes, and Nick Patrick doesn't disqualify him. Inconsistent prick, he disqualified the Hulk for doing nothing wrong earlier.

 

** In general, there is probably nothing wrong with the match, but it's too soon after SuperBrawl, and the sequences are all too familiar. Doesn't stop Salisbury giving a good "Macho! chant when Savage is in the grip of the Figure-4 himself. Patrick allows himself to be distracted by Hogan fighting Kevin Sullivan outside the ring, Arn Anderson smashes Savage with a DDT, Flair pins him. Good stuff. In the ensuing fight. Zodiac the Butcher Beefcake comes out to help Hogan and Savage, and the three man commentary team all pretend to not know who he is. That's really embarrassing.

 

** After the match Hogan rants and mentions "The Booty Man" a couple of times, so everyone knows that's Beefpiece's new name. Savage says of next week's match "this is going to be the REAL war to settle the score." At the time, that would have gone straight over my head, and even now, I don't know why Savage said that. If Piper had been involved, I might have understood.

 

On-going feature #1 :

 

Head to head comparison (and my opinion on which was the better show, having seen each and every one) :

 

12/02 - no Raw, so no comparison. 19/02 Raw - Goldust vs Razor, Body Donnas v Horowitz & Aldo non-start (faces attacked by Vader), Ringmaster vs Jannetty, Undertaker vs Tatanka. Nitro - Hogan v Anderson, Loch Ness v Wright, Belfast Bruiser v Brad Armstrong, Flair v Savage World title. 5-2 Nitro, even accounting for Loch Ness.

 

On-going feature #2 :

Towns in which babyface Hogan gets booed

Atlanta, Las Vegas, Canton (OH), Lakeland (FL), Salisbury (MD).

[IANdrewDiceClay]

** They kill the mystique about the Pillman deal by talking about what happened - with still photos - the night after. Straight away if you were thinking "something was up" because of how weird the deal went down (and Arn's shorts) then ironically, actually talking about Pillman the night after would convince me it was 100% work and he was still part of the company, even though most of the people involved didn't actually know what was going on.

Or they were just going about business as usual, because they dont want it to come across like something is up. WCW did the same thing when the Radicalz lost and they played Sid losing and making up a reason why Benoit isn't the champion anymore. You still have to keep the show going if something goes wrong. And if they fired Pillman (and his ECW appearance 6 days later confirmed he had been), you'd expect them to just tie up loose ends safe in the knowledge he wasn't coming back. Its easy to say it killed the mystique now, but things were far more guarded back then. Nobody was questioning everything like they do now, because in 95/96, nothing ever happened. This is the same era where people actually thought fake wrestlers from the WWF were showing up to take over another promotion. Was Montreal a work because WWF kept playing footage of that?

[air_raid]

Was Montreal a work because WWF kept playing footage of that?

 

Fine, point.