wrestling / Video Reviews
Leighty’s Retro Review: WCW Monday Nitro 02.26.96
Image Credit: WCW
Loading...-We are marching along with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage vs. The World. Let’s get to it!
-Announce Team: Eric Bischoff, Mongo, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
-Knoxville, TN
-Eric welcomes us to the show and notes they are the only live wrestling show tonight. They fill in the blanks as Zodiak is now The Booty Man. See, he was a spy sent by Hogan to infiltrate The Dungeon of Doom.
Big Bubba vs. Sting
-Eric lets us know that over on “The World Whining Federation,” Yokozuna won by DQ. Jake Roberts beats Isaac Yankem and Diesel beat Bob Holly. Kind of funny he name drops Yankem when Nitro is coming live from Knoxville. Also, we know what gimmick followed after the dentist fizzled out and it’s thanks to Eric breaking out the money for that guy that beat Bob Holly. Bubba offers a handshake and Sting slaps him in the face. Sting plants Bubba face first on the mat, but gets caught with an inverted atomic drop. Bubba slides to the floor and hits the uppercut. I also liked that move from him. Sting fights back, but makes the mistake of diving at Bubba again and this time gets planted with a spinebuster for two. Bubba keeps going for the pin, but Sting is out at two each time. Another comeback by Sting, but Bubba cuts him off again and hits a splash in the corner. Bubba tells the crowd to kiss his butt as he seems to be having fun out there. Lariat gets a two count. They fight on the floor and back in the ring Bubba sets too early on a backdrop and Sting hits a piledriver. That move works even more in Tennessee. Bubba is lucky it’s only Knoxville though and not Memphis. They start trading right hands and Sting wins the exchange. Sting goes for a Vader Bomb in a nice touch, but Bubba gets the knees up to block. Bubba heads up and Sting knocks him off and then hits a crossbody off the top for the pin at 7:14.
Winner: Sting via pin at 7:14
-I enjoyed this match! Bubba seemed fired up and Sting is always good against big dudes as he can take a beating and build sympathy. The crowd was into as well but we are in Tennessee and they love their Rasslin. **1/2
-Gene Okerlund is in the aisle with Sting and Lex Luger. The Road Warriors interrupt and Luger makes the mistake of telling Animal they will face them anytime, anywhere in any kind of match. Animal goes on a rant about Luger not being from the streets of Chicago and Lex wants Sting to back him up. Sting tells Lex he is from the white collar section of Chicago while the LOD are from the streets. Hawk throws out the idea of a Chicago Street Fight and Lex says they are down and then asks Gene “what does that mean?” Awesome! Sting seems stunned that Lex doesn’t know what a Chicago Street Fight is and walks off. The Road Warriors being back in the red shoulder pads looked so much better than the blue ones that had been rocking.
The Renegade vs. Lex Luger
-Lex tries a shoulder tackle and Renegade pounds his chest, so Lex kicks him in the stomach. Effective! Renegade back with shoulder tackles and Lex bails to the floor. Lex lands a thumb to the eye on the apron, but Renegade runs him down with a clothesline. He pounds away in the corner. Luger with an inverted atomic drop, but Renegade no sells and hits a clothesline. Renegade leaps, but Luger goes low and Renegade crashes on the ropes. Luger chokes on the ropes as Eric talks about what happened at Uncensored last year. He brings up the King of the Road Match and I was waiting for a shot at Dustin Rhodes, but no dice. Eric is slipping! Renegade gets a sunset flip for two, but Lex is up first and mows him down with a clothesline for two. Wait, there’s the Eric we all know as he notes Lex was part of a New Generation, yet he crossed over to wrestle where the Big Boys play. Renegade with a slam for two and hits a running clothesline in the corner. Handspring elbow followed by a bulldog. Renegade heads up top, but here’s Jimmy Hart and he shoves Renegade off the top rope to the floor, which has Heenan laughing his ass off. Luger sends Renegade back into the ring and gets The Rack on an unconscious Renegade for the win at 5:48.
Winner: Lex Luger via pin at 5:48
-This was fine. Luger was probably too giving here, but this was mainly to set up the fun ending and the post match with Sting. *1/2
-Lex celebrates like he won Game 7 of the World Series with Jimmy Hart. Sting is out and he’s not happy, so Jimmy bails. Lex then raises the hand of Renegade to show Sting he’s a good guy. Man, I know why they turned Lex because of what was coming in May, but this Luger character is so good. Sting gets in Luger’s face and Lex backs down. While it most likely wasn’t planned, this also set the seeds for Sting turning his back on WCW because he gave Luger so much rope, but Lex didn’t give anything to Sting once he thought he went nWo.
Harlem Heat vs. The Road Warriors
-Eric throws to commercial before the match starts and says, “welcome to the War Zone.” So Vince stole that from him. I kid! Booker T starts with Hawk and the crowd is pumped for this one. Booker lays in forearms to the back and gets a slam. More forearms followed by a knee to the gut. Hawk out of the corner with a clothesline and a dropkick. Cool! Booker bails to the floor and makes Hawk chase. Back in the ring Booker sets too early on a backdrop and Hawk hits a nasty looking neckbreaker. Animal in as Eric talks about visiting a bar in Chicago named “Mothers.” Heenan knows of the place as well. I must have missed that place the one time I was in Chicago. Stevie Ray gets a slam on Animal but misses a clothesline. Animal hits one but Stevie is still standing so Animal hits another one. Eric mentions “war zone,” again and he mentions they have extra security around the announce position. Booker in and hits Hawk with an ax kick for two. Stevie hooks a front facelock as the crowd cheers on Hawk. Loud “LOD” chant. Hawk reverses a whip, but misses a charge and goes shoulder first into the post. Booker back in and he hits a sidekick. Eric is told that the winners of this match will be the #1 contenders. That makes sense, but we were just told Lex and Sting had an open contract and The Road Warriors took them up on it for the Street Fight at Uncensored. Animal gets the tag and hits a double clothesline. Stevie sends him to the floor while Booker heads up top and he hits The Harlem Hangover. That move is still sick! No ref though and Animal hits a running boot from the apron and Hawk rolls over for the pin at 7:48.
Winners: The Road Warriors via pin at 7:48
-This was solid as The Harlem Heat did their stuff and controlled. It probably helped the match as The RW could hit their power moves in between to keep the fans invested. The Heat were kind of robbed here. **1/4
Ric Flair (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth), Arn Anderson, and Kevin Sullivan vs. Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and The Booty Man
-I guess you could say The Booty Man crawled so Mr. Ass could run in The Attitude Era. Massive brawl to start and we see that Hogan and Savage are wearing Mega Powers shirts, so obviously WWF doesn’t own the TM anymore. Things settle down to Booty Man and Arn. I completely blanked on WCW being able to call them The Mega Powers. The Diamond Doll is in the aisle with flowers and yep, that was going somewhere as well. Arn plays pinball as he gets bounced around between BM, and The Mega Powers. Arn gets some shoulders in the corner but misses a charge in the corner. Sleeper, but Sullivan is in and BM puts him in the sleeper. Flair in and he struts as we don’t need tags here. Flair rubs the face of Liz to play mind games with Savage. BM struts to mock Flair and then messes up his hair. Flair begs off and then fixes his hair. Test of strength which is weird to see between these two. Hogan/Warrior this is not! BM gets a knuckle lock and gets to his corner to break. Tag to Savage and Flair charges at him but then backs off in the corner. Flair gets Savage in his corner and Savage fights his way out to pop the crowd. Eric lets us know Nitro will be preempted next week as TNT is airing a special on The Civil War. Hogan in and he dominates Flair. Backdrop! Flair Flip in the corner and Hogan hits a clothesline. Arn and Sullivan in and Hogan hits a double clothesline. Savage sends Flair back into the ring and Hogan pounds away and then bites at Flair’s head. BM in and double boot gets a two count. BM dominates all three which is wild as he was a jobber for over a year and now is dominating the World Champion. Savage back in and Liz and Woman grab his leg. Savage grabs both by the hair which is jarring to see someone do that to Liz actually. The heels finally gain control 9 minutes into this one and it makes sense it is Savage taking the beating. He’s great at it! Arn catapults Savage throat first under the bottom rope. Flair takes him to the floor and goes to work on him. Back in the ring Sullivan gets the tag and catches Savage charging in with a boot to the face. Arn back in and Savage fights back, but can’t get out of the corner. Sullivan back in and they collide to leave both men down. Hot tag to BM and again, he dominates all three men. Wild! Hogan just relaxes in the corner as BM feeds him each man to take a big boot. Hogan drops the leg on Arn and gets the pin at 12:06.
Winners: Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and The Booty Man via pin at 12:06
-The crowd loved this. Booty Man becoming a wrecking machine out of nowhere was a decision. I guess they wanted to get the new character over. The heels looked weak for most of the match before getting some heat on Savage to set up the win. Hogan had lost two straight to Arn so I guess it was time to get a win back here. I assume the idea is Hogan and Savage had to win here, so Flair and company get so desperate they have to keep adding members to the team. That of course will lead to Uncensored. **
-After the match Flair sends Hogan into the corner and Liz (w/ Hogan’s help) cuffs Hogan to the top buckle so Flair can whip him with a belt and then we rush off the air as Savage makes the save.
-Thanks for reading!
