The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Nitro October 1995

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Nitro October 1995

Just when you think Eddy Vs Malenko will be the best match of the month (by a mile) they go and bring in Benoit…against Eddy

Five Nitro’s to get through in October 1995 so I’d better get on with it.

Incidentally you can follow me on Twitter @arnoldfurious and get early snowflake ratings!

2nd October 1995. My birthday btw. I seem to recall buying myself a satellite dish the month beforehand and watching most of these first time around on German television. Although I was more interested in Raw because it was on Sky Sports and got shilled constantly.

We’re in Denver, Colorado. Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mongo & Bobby Heenan.

PROMO TIME Ric Flair invades the introduction to demand Arn Anderson tonight!

Lex Luger v Randy Savage

If Luger loses this match he’s out of WCW, which is odd seeing as he only turned up here 4 weeks ago. Hey, I’d job him anyway. 4 weeks of usefulness is about all you can expect out of Luger in one stint. The announcers bash Raw for a bit before saying Hogan will be here. Luger-Savage run a nice lockup, which shows their intensity as they spill outside without breaking the collar & elbow. We stop off for adverts and plugging the god-awful Halloween Havoc ’95. Luger gets a receipt for Savage’s slap a few weeks ago, which is a nice touch. Luger starts getting heat for taking over with his power. Both guys look interested, which is a bonus. Luger then uses the ropes to block a backslide, which gets him yet more heat. He’s certainly working heelish ahead of his official PPV turn. But its been a genuine back and forth with Savage blurring the lines a little himself. They work in the corner ref bump, which leads directly to the Savage Big Elbow. Again, Luger would be toast in WCW if Randy Anderson was standing. GIANT strolls down, presumably because he likes fucking with people. CHOKESLAM for Savage. Luger doesn’t want to just pin as he wants the RACK but Savage is unconscious from the chokeslam so Luger wins. **. Surprisingly solid. Both guys looked motivated and Luger’s character has been booked quite well so far. Of course his heel turn would take away that grey area and make him into a boring generic bad guy but at least there was some hope pre-turn.

During the ad break whoever taped this gets bored and flips onto Raw where Triple H is in process of beating Barry Horowitz. Coming back Bischoff plugs a horrible line-up on WCW Saturday Night. Bischoff wonders why Giant didn’t go after Luger when he chokeslammed Savage. Because he’s teasing another heel turn? Disco Inferno is out here to dance. Eddy comes out here for his match and to no sell the wacky heel antics of Glen Gilberti. Get the fuck outta here, jabroni!

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko

Naturally Bischoff talks about Hogan and naturally THIS FUCKING RULES! They do some flip counters and then ROCK THE SHIT out of the matwork. Near misses at speed, which is conventional nowadays but was SLICK back then. The mat counters get BETTER AND BETTER and THESE FUCKING WCW ASSHOLES cut away to Hogan arriving. Fuck Hogan! The last 3 minutes of wrestling are better than anything he’s done in five years. Back in the ring the wrestling is just getting better and better. Eddy rana’s Malenko out of the ring and slams him on the floor. PLANCHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Eddy went UP before he came down on that. BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAH! FROGSPLASH…gets knees. They switch again and Eddy blocks an ankle pick by sitting down and hooks both legs for the pin. That was AWESOME. ***1/2. Just brilliant fluid chaining with fast counters and stuff that people are still ripping off from these matches today. Its not the moves so much that were impressive but how they were executed. Everything was so crisp and fast.

PROMO TIME – Hulk Hogan. Because interrupting the best match in Nitro history (so far) isn’t quite enough time on the show for the Hulkster. Hogan cuts some boring promo and goes out to slap hands until a masked plant throws powder in his eyes. That’d be Kevin Sullivan disguised, badly, as a woman. Giant arrives to break Hogan’s neck. Sullivan adds insult to injury by shaving Hogan’s moustache off. Haha. Excellent. The American Males try for the save but both get chokeslammed. Nasty Boys try next. Two more chokeslams. I dig that Kevin Sullivan went a different route to just beating Hogan up and got inside his head with the shave. Interesting to note Ed Leslie out there and his refusal to cut Hogan’s hair off. He’d later reveal he was a spy for Hogan the whole time. Which makes you wonder why Hogan kept walking into obvious traps. But then Hogan has a notorious inability to take advice from anyone.

Ric Flair v Arn Anderson

This is the main event. Hell of a line-up this week! You know what happens here. Flair chops and does his thing then Arn works the arm. Flair chops some more. They up the ante on the floor with rail spots and Flair takes a backdrop. Naitch begs off. Hehe. “Noooooo”. Arn punches dangerously close to Space Mountain so Flair thumbs him in the eye and Arn flattens him with a spinebuster. It’s a constant game of one-upmanship. Flair gets a sleeper, which is reversed. They trade on elbows, which is great because Arn’s is defensive but Flair’s really isn’t. FIGURE FOUR and Arn gets into the ropes. Flair comes off the top but gets punched in the ribs. That happens to him a lot. Arn goes for the kill with a piledriver on the floor but Flair backdrops out of that. When they’re not one-upping each other they’re countering the big moves. Flair grabs the ropes to evade the DDT. See? Double A comes off the ropes and gets chopped. FIGURE FOUR! Arn tries to counter out but can’t so he quits and before the ref can break the hold Pillman splashes Flair off the ropes. ***1/4. Great counters from two guys who really know each other’s shit.

POST MATCH Pillman & Arn beat the crap out of Flair as Bischoff remarks that Flair has no friends now. Of course this is all just a ruse to sucker Sting into tagging with Flair so Flair can turn on him. Bischoff says Nick Bockwinkel has made a cage match between Flair & Arn next week.

The 411 – 8.0

A cracking Nitro highlighted by a lack of filler and an awesome Eddy-Malenko match. Plus Flair-Arn & Luger-Savage were decent and Hogan got his moustache shaved off. They really were pulling out all the stops on these early shows.

9th October 1995.

We’re in Chicago, Illinois. Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mongo and Bobby Heenan. They’re all wearing “Bears” shirts. Heenan’s has a ? instead of a number. They debate the whole Hogan-Giant situation until Sting shows up with a solution for the Savage-Luger situation. He’ll tell us later.

US title – Sting (c) v Shark

For those who don’t remember Shark is John Tenta who was Earthquake in WWF. He got signed along with all the other guys WCW swooped for in the past 2 years. Shark seems quite motivated and mobile (for him). Sting hits three Stinger Splashes and a high crossbody finishes. ½*. No wonder Shark looked so busy in his first stint on offence; it was 95% of the entire match!

POST MATCH we see a recap of Hogan getting whupped by Giant and Kevin Sullivan shaving his moustache off from last week’s Nitro.

Sabu v Mr JL

JL is Jerry Lynn in a mask. Sabu is enjoying his extremely brief WCW run of 1995. Crowd loudly chants “Sabu” before the bell. They love this guy. WCW higher up’s got a bit nervous though so this push is about 5 weeks long. More “Sabu” chants followed by “Hogan sucks”. These guys go at a hundred miles an hour. JL hitting a tope after a bunch of Sabu stuff. Sabu breaks out the slingshot hilo and some chair stuff on the floor. More “Sabu” chants. I know its Chicago but he’s crazy over. Lynn is perfect for this duty because he can take all Sabu’s crazy spots but also add in his own high-spots. Nobody is selling for shit but this is a quick TV match. Lynn nails a DDT off the ropes for 2 but Sabu pops back up and tries for a super rana. JL blocks using the ropes so Sabu lands on his head. A follow up dive is caught into a powerbomb and Sabu finishes with the Camel Clutch. ***. Spot heavy insanity but the crowd LOVED this. Sabu was just too much for WCW even though the fans ate up all his high spots. Imagine him sticking around into 1996 and opposing the New World Order with his chair throwing lunacy? Yeah…probably not.

PROMO TIME Gene Okerlund has Sting & Luger. Sting invites Savage out too. Good luck controlling that situation, Stinger! He says Giant has chokeslammed everyone but Savage points out Giant hasn’t chokeslammed Sting. Sting calls Savage paranoid. YA THINK? Sting sets up a match between Savage & Luger at Halloween Havoc IF they both win their matches (against shlubs Meng & Kamala). Luger complains so Sting runs him down by telling him he’s not living up to his nickname. OHHHHH! Luger, baited by Sting’s name-calling, agrees.

OUTSIDE a new signing arrives. Is this EWR? Nope, its Chris Benoit and his amazing mullet.

POST PROMO Disco Inferno comes out to dance. Once again he’s not booked so his music is switched off. BUT HE BROUGHT HIS OWN! The party never ends for Disco Inferno.

Bubba Rogers v Roadwarrior Hawk

There is extensive clubberin’. Hawk takes over with a powerslam but has to stop off to assault Disco who’s dancing on the apron. Hawk is more a heavy metal kinda guy. So he gets himself counted out while beating the shit out of Disco. Bubba wins on count out. ¼*. Who were they trying to get over here?

PROMO TIME Gene invites out Hulk Hogan to BOOING. Chicago does not care for the Hulkster. Serious heat here and its so severe that Okerlund has to address it. This is one downside to doing Nitro live; you can’t edit a live crowd and this crowd hates Hulk Hogan. Luckily the storyline fits it because Hogan is wearing all black as heel-turn preview. He calls Giant out but Giant is banned from the arena. Hogan claims Vince McMahon is “choking on his own ego”. We cut to outside where Giant shows up in a Monster Truck. Zodiac looks like an idiot. Gene tells Hogan (for the third time) that Giant is banned from the arena so Hogan heads to face the Dungeon of Doom outside. Crowd serenade him with a chant of “Hogan sucks”. The local cops stop Hogan going outside and Giant from coming in. Thus denying us anything of interest. Bischoff, without batting an eyelid, segues into a shill for Blink of an Eye. Don’t know if you’ve seen that one but it sucks.

Cage match – Ric Flair v Arn Anderson

Great start to this with both guys bringing the fists and Flair winning out. This cage is really small. Flair gets thrown into it a bunch of times but doesn’t blade because this is TV. Arn hits a spinebuster and goes up top but Flair chops him off. Flair STYLES AND PROFILES! Pillman runs out here and that cage is so small that Pillman is almost in it before Flair realises he’s there. Flair knocks him off after Pillman stops at the top. SHINBREAKER for Double A and Flair gets the Figure Four but Arn cuts it off with BRASS KNUCKS and gets the pin. **1/2. Energetic main event that helped to further the whole Horsemen angle. Once again Flair is outnumbered.

POST MATCH Flair demands both Arn and Pillman. He’ll search the world for a partner but in the meantime he’ll take on BOTH MEN.

The 411 – 7.0

Shockingly fun episode of Nitro with Flair-Anderson and Sabu-Lynn bringing the goods. While Sting’s match and the pointless Hawk-Bubba encounter weren’t any good the crowd remained on good voice. I think this marks the first time they’ve put on back to back good Nitro’s. Even the Hogan angle seems more interesting than usual with his black attire, as if to say the Giant has pushed him into heeldom. Shame they never really pushed it that far but at least they came back to it when Hogan turned legitimately the following summer.

16th October 1995.

Not sure where we are. Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mongo and Bobby Heenan. They debate Flair & Sting teaming tonight. Sting warns Flair that if he “swerves him” he’ll leave Flair for dead.

TV title – DDP (c) w/Kim v Johnny B. Badd

This is a Halloween Havoc preview as they’re wrestling there too. This feud basically rumbled on until Badd was fired by Eric Bischoff and went to WWE instead. Whereas DDP lives next door to Bischoff and never got fired. This match is somewhat abrupt as DDP knocks Badd out with the title belt before the bell. N/R. DDP is an awesome jerk.

POST MATCH Page pins poor little Johnny, counts the 3 himself and fires the Badd Blaster in climax. Sleazy.

Eddy Guerrero v Chris Benoit

This is Benoit’s debut (although he’d appeared before, WCW wanted us to forget that). They do some speedy stuff to start with but it’s the TECHNICAL skill that’s mind-blowing. Top wristlock takeovers at speed impress me. Eddy breaks out the 619 to fake a dive and hits a plancha instead. Crowd is very pro-Eddy. They bust out some fantastic countering and Benoit BACKDROP SUPLEXES EDDY OVER THE TOP. Both guys go over the top and Eddy then gets run into the post. This is viciously awesome. Benoit starts targeting the arm thinking ‘submission’. HAMMERLOCK SUPLEX. Eddy counters a backbreaker into an armdrag at speed before hitting a springboard DDT. Eddy is doing a great job selling the arm so Benoit can just flatten him if he gets on Eddy’s bad side. Eddy meanwhile is using counters like switching his body weight. Benoit brings the chops before going back to the arm. Its starting to slow down now after a frenetic pace in the opening minutes. Eddy brings the handheld lucha AWESOMENESS to escape a wristlock. Eddy breaks out a SWANK brainbuster to set for the frogsplash. Benoit gets knees up with Eddy in the air, as it should be, and Eddy lands with his arm. SUPER SWANK POWERBOMB with foldover from Benoit GETS 2. They do a great reversal out of a second one but Eddy makes the mistake of punching Benoit with his bad arm. The resultant sell sees Benoit able to hit a DRAGON SUPLEX for the pin. ****. That was fucking GREAT.

POST MATCH Bischoff says they’re considering a cruiserweight division. Duh. They could have just signed a load of wrestlers of that style and had them fight over one of the titles that was bullshit anyway. Like the TV title. Although the weight limit does prevent title hungry buddies of Hogan taking it. Gene Okerlund shills the Hotline where he’ll tell you about Shawn Michaels losing a fight with a fan in Syracuse.

PROMO TIME Kevin Sullivan & The Giant. Sullivan says he spent months telling everyone he was evil. He claims they stole Hogan’s identity when they shaved his moustache off and now they’re going to steal his title and his fans. Giant’s promo is shaky and sounds like Hogan wrote it. He seems more concerned with destroying Hulkamania with a truck rather than his hands.

POST PROMO Disco Inferno comes out to dance again.

Meng v Jim Duggan

Meng’s fucking awful robe involves a weird looking mask. It makes him look like a 5 year kid going trick or treating. He’s significantly more badass than that. These guys slug it out and it all seems lethargic after Eddy-Benoit. Duggan brawls away looking to set up the Three Point Stance but he turns into a superkick and Meng finishes with the Asiatic Spike. ¼*.

POST MATCH we cut to Hogan who cuts a pre-recorded promo where he compares himself to Don Corleone. He also claims to be bigger than the promotion, which probably isn’t what Bischoff wanted him to say. Hogan talks for so long here that he gets blown up. He asks Jimmy Hart for his opinion then tells him to shut up. He basically promises a replay of Wrestlemania III and also gouge out Sullivan’s eyes with the “evil of Hulkamania”.

He said it, not me!

Arn Anderson/Brian Pillman v Ric Flair/Sting

The angle has seen Flair desperate for backup and resorting to asking Sting who he hasn’t teamed with for 5 years AND Flair turned on him then too. Basically the Horsemen have fabricated this whole thing to take Sting out. Which is a bit elaborate. Flair goes it alone to start with as it looks like Sting isn’t taking the bait. Flair chops away like a maniac and STRUTS. Bischoff address the potential setup (as everyone expects it). But Flair is taking on both guys in an attempt to prove himself. Flair actually forgets how to apply the Figure Four on Arn but he’s aware of Pillman coming off the top and dodges it. He even breaks out the corner flip and the double axe handle without EITHER man coming close to getting him. The double teaming eventually allows a spinebuster and STING shows up finally. Now this becomes a more conventional match with the Horsemen running heat on Flair. Hot tag to Sting and he cleans house. STINGER SPLASHES. I like how Pillman is able to dodge a clothesline only for Sting to catch him the second time while he’s gloating about the dodge. Sting knocks both guys out of the ring and takes the count out win while checking on Flair. **1/2. Flair wrestled a great match by himself. Sting’s bit was less interesting.

POST MATCH Okerlund jumps in there and gets words. Sting says he watched this match to assess Flair’s guts and heart and he saw that. Sting says he thinks Flair is shooting straight so he’s got a partner at Halloween Havoc. Naturally Flair turns on Sting at Halloween Havoc. But EVERYONE saw that coming apart from Sting. And the award for “Most Gullible” goes to Sting!

The 411 – 7.5

A third straight top show from WCW. The Benoit-Guerrero match was an absolute showstealer and probably the best match Nitro has seen so far. Being only an hour long (45 minutes if you take out ad breaks) there’s only so much they can do. And they’re getting a lot done in that hour. A marked contrast to when Nitro went 3 hours and they had nothing at all in hour one.

23rd October 1995.

We’re in Huntsville, Alabama (last Nitro before Halloween Havoc). Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mongo and Bobby Heenan.

Randy Savage v Kurasawa

This would be quite the event in Japan…Savage against Nakanishi back when he had hair. Bischoff starts getting silly with the kick names here. “Back leg round kick”? What the fuck? Kurasawa kicks the shit out of Savage, no sells his attempted comeback and then kicks him some more. He does a bunch of stomps I’ll now be referring to as the Seven Samurai. See what I did there? If only we could get three different people telling this as a different story and I could call the whole match Rashomon. Hey, Bischoff and his wacky kick calls, Heenan’s heeling and Mongo’s, erm, yeah Mongo is there too. That’s three guys calling the match differently. Kurasawa picks off the arm but we have an ad break and he’s switched to chops when we come back. Savage is putting Kurasawa over like crazy but he then baits Kurasawa into kicking the ring post. He doesn’t sell that either while Savage is still having arm trouble. Savage then hits a clothesline and the Big Elbow for the win. Huh? Ok, that was out of nowhere. **1/4. Kurasawa was pretty entertaining on offence but the finish was sudden. Like Savage took heat the whole match then just looked at his watch…time for the finish. Boom. Something he did quite often around this period in his career.

PROMO TIME the lights go out and King Curtis rambles on about someone “wandering in darkness” and we see someone encased in ice. Oh, God. This is how they debuted The Yeti. Gene Okerlund must be getting Gobbledegooker flashbacks. He interviews Kevin Sullivan who rambles until the crowd drown him out with a loud “Hogan” chant. He and Giant go on to talk about “rare white Bengal Tigers” and basically they want the title. I like imagery and metaphors as much as anyone but they need to stick to one instead of switching every promo.

PROMO TIME After an ad break we welcome “the star of Thunder in Paradise, Hulk Hogan”. He’s still dressed in black. Crowd don’t hate him as much as in Chicago. Hogan botches the whole “there’s nothing to fear” line and mixes his metaphors like everything he ever read just ended up in a blender. Hogan shills for his favourite motorcycle shop because nothing says revenge like product placement. The promo gets Hollywood-esque as he says he’s the big dog and he’ll beat everyone (Sting, Luger and Savage all named). You could see his heel potential. Shame I have another 7/8 months to wait.

Dean Malenko/Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero/Mr JL

Alex Wright was scheduled to tag with Eddy but he’s injured and is replaced by Jerry Lynn. How about this matchup? The wrestling is great but the crowd doesn’t give a fuck, which is a bit of an issue with WCW bringing in big talents like this who’d not been in WWF. Although Sabu got over in one match. Benoit miscues on a tope and levels Malenko so Eddy throws JL out onto them. Crowd still doesn’t care. Fuck you, Huntsville! Eddy brings the lucha and that gets a minor rise out of the audience. Satellite backbreaker and I think the crowd is starting to feel it. Basically Eddy’s babyface lucha antics are winning the crowd over. We cut away to see Scott Norton brawling with the Shark. Oh, man. No one cares. No one. Lynn & Benoit bring some cool counters until Malenko knocks him down with an elbow from the apron. Malenko starts owning on normally dumb spots like throwing then following on an Irish whip. Bischoff is talking about Hogan. Welcome to WCW, vanilla midgets. Lynn has decided to work lucha-style in order to get team identity with Eddy. Malenko & Benoit’s team is based almost entirely on technical excellence and destroying JL one move at a time. Benoit is more aggressive and brings the superplex. Eddy gets a hot tag and dropkicks aplenty follow. Benoit hip tosses Eddy out of the ring and Malenko gets rolled up by JL courtesy of an Alex Wright trip. ***1/4. Eddy-Malenko just owned this. I really want to go back and watch their ECW matches.

POST MATCH Brian Pillman runs out and DDT’s Eddy on the floor. This seems random but Benoit would later join the Horsemen. Hell, Malenko too eventually.

Harlem Heat w/Sista Sherri v Sting/Lex Luger

This is the second week running that Sting has teamed with someone he isn’t sure he can trust. Its not even the same guy. I guess he feels he’s on firmer ground with Luger who he brought into WCW. Ominous, by which I mean rubbish, is the amount of time Bischoff is spending trying to get over the block of ice containing The Yeti. Bischoff stops shilling that to shill Stroker Ace, which is up next. Harlem Heat, being the heels and the established team, control the pace and isolate Luger. They also mess with Sting to get him all riled up and cut the ring off. Sherri is kissing polaroids of Colonel Parker. Oh man, I just realised I’ll probably have to explain polaroids to the younger readers. To the uneducated it sounds like a disease. Just look it up on Wikipedia. Sting gets the hot tag and Stinger Splashes occur. Booker prevents the Deathlock but that brings Luger in for a big brawl. Its broken down. In the confusion Sting hits a high crossbody on Booker for the win. *

POST MATCH Giant is out here. CHOKESLAM on Luger. CHOKESLAM on Sting to finally end that controversy. Savage runs in and confuses Giant, which buys Hogan time to get out here. Crowd is eating it up, which shows they probably booked the right title match for Halloween Havoc. Hogan’s EVIL Hulkamania doesn’t do him much good and everyone piles in for a massive brawl. Doug Dillenger threatens Hogan with a club to stop that. Eh? And as the show finishes the ice breaks and the Yeti escapes. Oh lordy.

The 411 – 6.0

The crowd seemed into it, except when I was into it. But then I’m not your typical Alabaman. I hate that the whole show was a build up to Ron Reese debuting as Yeti. Its such a dumb idea. They had a great thing going on with Hogan & Giant and this was distracting. Maybe they figured the Yeti would be their next big main eventer but it ended up as yet another Wrestlecrap entry. Benoit, Malenko and Guerrero was in the process of rejuvenating the undercard though, which is a huge bonus for watching these shows.

Then there’s Halloween Havoc, which featured none of those trio of undercard wrestlers. Instead featuring DDP v Marc Mero, Meng v Luger, Savage v Zodiac, Hawk v Kurasawa and Sabu v Jerry Lynn. It was a very random PPV. Of course most people remember the Monster Truck match, which resulted in the Giant being pushed off the roof of Cobo Hall but luckily landing in a nearby body of water (an impossibility). Giant later defeated on Hogan on DQ…which would lead to some interesting shenanigans whereby Jimmy Hart had pre-heel turned and included a stipulation that allowed Giant to walk out champ on DQ. At least the belt’s off Hogan as he’d only be appearing sporadically from now on until the New World Order storyline kicked in.

October 30th 1995.

We’re in Dayton, Ohio. Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mongo and Bobby Heenan. Bischoff promises footage from Halloween Havoc as soon as its cued up. What the fuck have they been doing all day? Just get a technician to rewind a tape for five minutes. Its not rocket science.

Craig Pittman v Eddy Guerrero

Pittman uses power and amateur style. Well, sloppy amateur style. He tries to target Eddy’s arm while Bischoff plugs World War III. The PPV, not the war that hasn’t happened yet. It amazes me that Pittman is so bad that he makes Eddy look bad. His strikes are woeful and his dodges are too slow. Nothing he does makes sense. I’ve been spoilt with Eddy Vs Benoit/Malenko. Eddy tries his best to get over Pittman’s arm work. Pittman’s suplexes are pretty good because he just bearhugs Eddy and then throws him. Its still sloppy but it looks good. This is a horrible clash of styles. Pittman can’t cope with Eddy’s lucha and Pittman’s stuff doesn’t mesh with it. Eddy eventually counters into a fluke rollup for the win. Hey, at least they put Eddy over! *1/2.

CLIPS we see Shark basically costing Scott Norton a match with Randy Savage last month. Also them fighting in the back last week. That’s how long it took Norton to figure out what happened. While that’s going on Heenan goes for a piss. Haha. That’s what happens when you show up drunk.

Shark v Scott Norton

Tenta takes it to Norton from the bell. I guess Norton is the babyface? He’s certainly doing the less impressive stuff here until he gets a body slam. We cut to Bobby Heenan hanging out with Sonny Onoo. Norton and Shark brawl around at ringside and both get counted out. ¼*. No one cares.

POST MATCH Tony Schiavone talks about last night and we get stills of Arn & Pillman v Sting/Flair where, obviously, Flair turns on Sting. Tony brings out Flair, Arn & Pillman to discuss matters. Pillman says the Horsemen isn’t a gang it’s a Dynasty. Pillman re-enacts Sting reaching for the tag last night. Arn says there will be one more to follow (Benoit). Flair’s promo is basically “we’re back”.

Sabu v Disco Inferno

What a crazy fucking matchup this is. Its almost like Sabu is in the wrong company. Can you imagine Disco in ECW? Well, it’d get a shit-tonne of heat. Disco dodges the single leg WITH DANCING so Sabu punches him in the face. HAHAHA. Sabu is a touch sloppy here. Disco takes over and Sabu takes enormous bumps. He neck bumps a clothesline. Not even a lariat! Crowd loves Sabu. I can’t believe WCW got scared of this guy. He was the future! He finishes with a somersault legdrop here. *1/2. Too short to be good but it was way better than I expected.

POST MATCH Sabu throws himself at Disco and lands on his head. Disco is unprepared for this level of carnage. TABLE! Somersault onto the table and Disco moves and the table DOESN’T BREAK. FUUUUUUCK me.

Lex Luger/Meng w/Jimmy Hart/Kevin Sullivan v American Males

Luger and Jimmy Hart turned at Halloween Havoc. This might be the worst collection of talent ever assembled for a Nitro main event. When Meng is, by far, the best worker in a tag match its not a tag match worth seeing. This match just completely sucks. Riggs can’t even hit a backdrop on Luger. Meng comes in to destroy Riggs thus creating the most interesting part of the match. In particular an enormous backbreaker and some tidy chops. Meng kicks Riggs in the head, illegally, while Jimmy Hart has the ref and Luger racks Bagwell for the win. ¼*.

POST MATCH we see clips from Halloween Havoc with Hogan v Giant. Jimmy Hart turning on Hogan is funny. However the Giant & Yeti tag team bearhug is disappointingly stupid. Luger’s full on heel turn is perhaps unsurprising, unlike Hart’s, so it barely merits mentioning.

PROMO TIME – Dungeon of Doom. Jimmy Hart says Hogan was warned. He was the evil living in Hogan’s house. Luger refers to Hogan as a pile of garbage. Giant says he’ll defend the title next week against ANYONE.

The 411 – 3.0

Just a disastrously bad fall-out from Halloween Havoc show. They barely even had time to address the world title situation, which should have happened at the top of the show. Giant gets a promo at the end of the show and Hogan was absent. The title situation still isn’t clear because Jimmy Hart never mentioned why Giant is champion. Plus the Horsemen reform but Sting isn’t on the show to confront them. The whole hour feels like a wasted opportunity and a waste of time. The worst episode of Nitro I’ve seen so far (from 1995).

The 411: Overall this is a good batch of shows with them introducing talented midcarders like Benoit, Malenko and Guerrero to the shows. You can see their desire to put on good matches in order to hook the wrestling fans but the shows were still being built around the old timers like Hogan, Savage and Luger, which makes for a depressing main event scene. You’ll notice when Halloween Havoc rolled around and the fat PPV money was on the line the guys who carried the good episodes of Nitro were nowhere to be seen.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]