wrestling / Video Reviews
Raw History: Episode 161 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 37
Loading...WWF In Your House: Beware of Dog Results
This was the infamous Pay-Per-View where the power went out to all broadcasts for three matches. Only the opener and the main event were seen by the audience at home. They then re-did the show on Tuesday, airing the original two matches before bringing viewers live showings of the other three. Even though the second set of matches were after Raw, I’ll post the results here.
Marc Mero def. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 16:22 (***¾)
WWF Championship: Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog fought to a no contest at 17:20 (**¾)
Caribbean Strap Match: Savio Vega def. Steve Austin in 21:23 (****¼)
Vader def. Yokozuna in 8:53 (*¼)
WWF Intercontinental Championship Casket Match: Goldust (c) def. Undertaker in 12:36 (**¼)
Raw History
Episode #161
May 27th, 1996 | Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium in Fayetteville, North Carolina
WWF Champion: Shawn Michaels (1) since 3/31/96
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Goldust (2) since 4/22/96
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Smoking Gunns (3) since 5/26/96
King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Goldust w/ Marlena and Ultimate Warrior wrestled to a double countout in 12:40
Right to the action and Vince talks about the King of the Ring being on the WWF Network. Someone is a bit ahead of himself. Goldust does some stalling and whenever Warrior gets his hands on him, he just takes a beating. For the most part, that’s what this match is. Warrior kicking Goldust’s ass. Like their PPV match in April. Goldust decides to give up and walk out, but Ahmed Johnson appears and forces him back inside. This just drags on for so long. Goldust works a chinlock and Warrior’s face paint is nearly completely gone. Warrior does the “Warrior up” stuff and hits a shoulder block. Goldust goes outside to regroup in the aisle with Marlena. Like a complete moron, Warrior follows. Lawler believes that Warrior is going after Marlena and leaves commentary. Both men get counted out because this whole thing is stupid. Just an awful match and an even worse finish. Remarkably stupid. -*
Jerry Lawler threatens Warrior with a chair but does nothing with it. Putrid.
LAST NIGHT ~ On the Free-4-All, the Smoking Gunns returned and got a Tag Team Title shot. Sunny was with the Godwins but got kissed by Billy. She was smitten and Phineas was heartbroken. Bart pinned him and they took the titles back. For the actual show, we get still footage of Mero beating Helmsley. The massive storm that took out the power is shown and the matches that aired in the dark are somewhat shown. You can’t see a damn thing. Vince plugs that they’re airing the show again tomorrow, with the matches that weren’t seen being redone.
Ted Dibiase and Steve Austin are interviewed because Savio Vega beat Austin in the dark last night. Dibiase sweetens the pie for the rematch. If Austin wins, Savio has to be his chauffer but if Savio wins, Dibiase will leave the company. Austin looks at this news with surprise.
Non-Title Match: WWF Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns w/ Sunny def. The Bodydonnas in 9:32
One night after being with the Godwins, Sunny is with the Gunns. And this is a week after being with the Bodydonnas. Hillbilly Jim joins commentary and the Godwins/Gunns rematch will be at the King of the Ring. But where is the rematch for the Bodydonnas? Harvey Wippleman is out to take notes about the officiating. The teams trade stuff early, with the Gunns clearly playing the role of the superior duo. Skip confronts Sunny but the Gunns step in the middle before commercial. Skip gets two on a leg drop. Bart is playing the face in peril, but since they have Sunny, it is hard to consider them faces. A heartbroken Phineas comes out to plead with Sunny. Jim stops him and Henry Godwin comes out to pull him back. The Bodydonnas double team Billy with a suplex onto the top rope. They do a rebound suplex to Bart also. Skip hits a body press off the top, but Bart rolls over into a pin for the three. Decent match here, but there was no reason to not have it be for the titles. They worked hard. **
A recap is shown of the Bulldog/Michaels controversial finish last night.
King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Vader w/ Jim Cornette def. Ahmed Johnson in 9:50
Oh, this should be interesting. Owen Hart joins commentary and simply says that Ahmed isn’t good enough to beat anyone in Camp Cornette. They come face to face and talk smack to each other. Vader must have said something about Ahmed’s mom because he goes nuts and beats the hell out of him in the corner. The crowd eats all of this up. He uses a splash to take Vader over and outside. Vader’s mask even comes off. Cornette whacks Ahmed with the racket but it has no effect. Ahmed chases him off to the back before commercial. Returning, Vader is in control and has the mask back on. Vader works him over and Ahmed’s hope spots gets huge reactions, including when he body slams Vader. Cornette intervenes, so Ahmed pulls him in the hard way. He sends Cornette into Vader and hits a spinebuster. Owen comes off the top and hits Ahmed with his cast, giving Vader the win. A good old fashioned power match between these two that was better than I expected. Ahmed takes his first loss though I wish Vader got look stronger. ***
After the break, Ahmed Johnson is doing a stretcher job. Before they make it to the ambulance, Goldust comes over and gives him mouth to mouth. Vince is repulsed, shouting “THAT’S THE MOST REVOLTING THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE” It works though because Ahmed gets up. He notices the gold on his lips and goes nuts, throwing the stretcher around. He sells the injuries on the way down the stairs before choking a concerned Bob Holly.
Reliving Nitro
Episode #37
May 27th, 1996 | Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: The Giant (2) since 4/29/96
WCW United States Champion: Konnan (1) since 1/29/96
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Sting and Lex Luger (1) since 1/22/96
WCW Television Champion: Lex Luger (1) since 3/696
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (1) since 5/18/96
It’s the first ever two hour Nitro. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko handle commentary for hour one and they sit at ringside, not up in the normal Nitro commentary booth.
Arn Anderson and Ric Flair w/ Elizabeth and Woman def. The American Males in 9:59
This is to help showcase Arn and Ric’s work as a team considering their upcoming match against Mongo and Kevin Greene at the Great American Bash. Zbyszko seems to be playing the heel commentator. After the heels control things early, the American Males fire up and send them packing to talk strategy. Following a commercial break, the crowd is still hot for Bagwell beating up Flair. Arn picks apart Riggs though, beating on his leg. Riggs sends Arn outside and makes the hot tag to Buff. Buff takes out both Flair and Anderson. He comes close to winning on a few occasions, including on his signature fisherman’s suplex, but the pin gets broken up. Woman gouges him in the eyes behind the official’s back and Arn plants him with a DDT. Flair covers to win. Arn and Ric did a great job of making them seem like a threat. That’s two straight weeks of Flair doing his best to get a lesser act over. Solid tag formula here. **½
Mean BAH GAWD Gene interviews the winners. Arn says he never met a football player that he couldn’t walk over the top of to get to a better fight and he never saw a woman that Ric couldn’t have. That woman is Debra McMichael right now. Ric sings “Afternoon Delight” because he’s goddamn Ric Flair.
TRAINING MONTAGE ~ Mongo and Kevin Greene’s workout montage is shown. They lift weights, grunt and call out Flair a few times.
The Mauler w/ Col. Robert Parker vs. Steve Doll went to a no contest at 3:00
The Mauler is Mike Enos, while Steve Doll was Steve Dunn as part of Well Dunn in the WWF. This match doesn’t matter at all. Mauler seems to be on the verge of a squash, as he just tosses Doll around. After a break, we return to see RAZOR RAMON walking down the steps of the arena. He hops the guardrail and enters the ring with a microphone. The match just ends as everyone heads out.
This is one of the most infamous moments in wrestling history. “Hey you people…you know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here. Where is Billionaire Ted? Where is the Nacho Man? That punk can’t even get in the building. Me? I go wherever I want, whenever I want. And where, oh where, is Scheme Gene? Cause I got a scoop for you. When that Ken doll lookalike, when that weatherman wannabe comes out here later tonight, I got a challenge for him, for Billionaire Ted, for the Nacho Man and for anybody else in, uh, WCW. Hey, you want to go to war? You want a war? You’re gonna get one.” A ridiculously important and well done segment. This was before the internet era so fans had no clue about this. You had to run to your phone and call your buddy to make sure they were watching Nitro. The fans didn’t know he signed with WCW and they never used his name, so this really felt like a WWF guy appearing on Nitro to challenge WCW to a fight, which was mind-boggling.
Diamond Dallas Page def. Sgt. Craig Pittman w/ Teddy Long in 3:01
Commentary does their best to shake off the previous segment. Pittman takes the arrogant DDP to the mat, which angers him. Page pulls Pittman over the top and onto the apron to turn the tide. Pittman applies the Code Red submission, but DDP reaches out and grabs Long as a distraction. Pittman breaks the hold and checks on Teddy, so DDP strikes with the Diamond Cutter. Mostly a squash of sorts. DDP was starting to pick up steam.
VIDEO PACKAGE ~ Macho Man is insane if you weren’t aware.
Gene Okerlund interviews Shark backstage. He is apparently no longer with the Dungeon of Doom, which somehow earns him a WCW World Title shot tonight. He promises to win it and also to eat Jimmy Hart.
VIDEO PACKAGE ~ Hulk Hogan and his association with various celebrities are highlighted, while his garbage WCW theme plays. George Foreman, Shaq, Kevin Greene and Dennis Rodman are all highlighted.
Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan take over for the second hour of commentary. Bischoff says that he’s ready, willing and able to take on the “intruder” if need be, but will not dignify his appearance with a response.
WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (c) w/ Jimmy Hart def. Shark in 4:02
Shark is introduced from “tsunami”. Wow. Shark’s offense has no impact on the Giant but Giant kicks his ass. Shark actually comes off the second rope with an axe handle but still can’t bring him down. Giant slams Shark like he weighs nothing. Shark finally knocks him down but a Jimmy Hart distraction allows Giant to win with the chokeslam. I don’t see why Giant needed help. He should have run Shark over. ½*
Big Bubba runs out and shaves half of Shark’s head because he messed with the Dungeon of Doom. I don’t get it.
Non-Title Match: WCW Television Champion Lex Luger def. Maxx in 5:43
I have no clue who this Maxx dude is but I feel like I should and it’s bugging me. He’s huge and it is because Luger asked for every possible big man WCW could throw at him in preparation for the Giant at the Great American Bash. Maxx works him over while Bischoff talks to some people off-camera and says that “he can wait until the end of the hour.” Maxx wears down Luger for far too long here, considering their placements on the card. Luger nails a body slam and wins with the Torture Rack. This went on way longer than it needed to. Dull, boring and didn’t accomplish much. -*
Mean Gene is back to interview Lex Luger. He questions the way Luger got his title shot, but Luger says he isn’t one of the matchmakers. They show when Giant chokeslammed Luger through a table two weeks ago. Luger is upset that Giant tried to injure him and will go through every big man in the company before taking down the Giant.
“Hardwork” Bobby Walker def. Brad Armstrong in 4:26
What the hell is this? Walker graduated from the WCW Power Plant and ended up suing the WCW after he left the company, for something related to racism. These guys go at it while the crowd sits on their hands. Look, if you’ve hooked viewers with the Razor Ramon angle, don’t force them to change the channel with this garbage. Walker slips as he jumps to the top rope but the crowd doesn’t even react because they don’t care. Both guys get near falls on some flash pins. Walker tries another high risk move and slips again, before nailing an ugly blockbuster for the upset. Sloppy work, nothing of interest and just all around bad. DUD
Lord Steven Regal w/ Jeeves def. Alex Wright in 7:18
Finally, a match that intrigues me. DAS WUNDERKIND! Wright uses his quickness to offset Regal’s mat ability. He takes Regal over with some headscissors and then nails a plancha to the outside. They go to break and plug Glacier. Returning, Regal is stretching Wright on the ground. Wright starts firing up and drills Regal with a huge European uppercut. He moonsaults over Regal and rolls him up for two. Wright also gets two on a jumping kick. He tries a monkey flip but Regal holds on and he crashes hard. Regal jackknife pins him and takes the win. Decent work from two solid guys. **
Mean Gene continues to get that paycheck and interviews Regal. He says that he sent the Belfast Bruiser packing and it’s about time he has a say in what goes on in WCW. He calls the fans peasants and issues a challenge to the “franchise” Sting.
Scott Steiner and Sting wrestle to a no contest in 10:16
You can really see how big Scott is here. He’s nearing Big Poppa Pump era. Sting stops to eat some food off of Ric Flair’s ringside table. Scott has the power advantage and uses that early on. Sting hits a pescado over and out onto Scott but once inside, Scott nails a great looking butterfly suplex. Sting goes outside and Scott connects on a top rope double axe handle. Steiner wears Sting down inside for a bit. Sting rallies and hits the Stinger Splash. Lex Luger makes his way to ringside, so Rick Steiner joins the fray too. He looks absolutely ridiculous in a beige cap, light purple shirt and his singlet on under. Second rope Samoan drop by Steiner doesn’t get much of a reaction. Sting goes for the Scorpion Death Lock but Scott is by the ropes. Luger and Rick come to blows outside and once things move inside, Scott gets involved the referee has to throw the match out. This was going pretty well for the most part and the crowd eats up the two teams brawling. ***
Random WCW jobbers come out to try and keep this separated.
Razor returns, this time to the commentary booth. He says that Bischoff has a big mouth and if this is where the big boys play, that’s a joke. He tells Bischoff to tell Billionaire Ted to get three of his best (he disses Sting and the Nacho Man) to go against them. Bischoff is confused by his continued use of the word “we”. He ends it with “we are taking over” and throws the toothpick in Eric’s face.
Raw Rating: 2.3
Nitro Rating: 2.8
5.5 Nitro: I wanted to like this episode so much more. It is instantly a must see show simply for the historic Scott Hall angle. Those two segments are gripping TV that makes you want to watch more. The matches on this show, outside of the opener and main event, are absolute garbage though. If you’re gonna watch this episode, check out the Hall stuff and those two matches. Skip everything else. 5.5
