wrestling / Video Reviews
Leighty’s Retro Review: WCW Monday Nitro 1.29.96
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-This show is days after Clash of The Champions as we start the road to SuperBrawl. Let’s get to it!
-Announce Team: Eric Bischoff, Mongo, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
-Canton, OH
-Note: I finally made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 and it was a blast. Easy drive for me from SW PA. I need to make another trip soon, so Krepps get ready! It’s also great that Mongo finally got the Hall of Fame nod.
Ric Flair (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Hulk Hogan (w/ Miss Elizabeth)
-That’s right this show is the day after The Super Bowl and my apologies to all my friends and family as they had to watch The Steelers lose to The Cowboys. Interesting that Hogan is actually opening the show here and is letting Savage close in the Main Event. Flair locks up and Hogan shoves him on his ass and Flair flies head over heels. It happens again and Flair starts to back up as he rethinks his strategy. Flair throws chops in the corner and yeah, not working. Right hands from Hogan and a backdrop followed by a series of clotheslines with the last one sending Flair to the floor. Hogan follows and Flair gets in a thumb to the eyes. Flair struts, but right into a clothesline. He begs off back in the ring but Hogan lands right hands and then the corner clothesline. The ref keeps Hogan from throwing punches in the corner, and that lets Flair clip the knee as we take a break at 2:56.
-60 seconds of Peacock commercials!
-WCW Magazine commercial! Horsemen on the cover of the Feb issue, which has World War 3 coverage.
-Back at 3:35 with Flair working the knee and firing off chops. Flair heads up and Hogan hops on one leg and gets the slam. Right hands followed by a shoulder tackle, but Flair lands a back elbow. He goes back to work on the knee. Hart tries as well, but Hogan kicks him away. Flair poses and Hogan is up behind him. Clothesline followed by the mounted punches in the corner. Hogan bites Flair before sending him to the corner, where Flair goes up and over. A clothesline knocks Flair off the apron. Hogan rakes the back and sends Flair into the railing so Flair goes back to old reliable as he lands a thumb to the eyes. Flair dumps Hogan back to the floor and Hart goes to a choke. Then he lays the boots in as Flair controls the ref. Back in the ring Flair goes back to the knee and hits a knee-breaker. Figure-Four which gets a loud “Hogan,” chant while others are cheering on Flair. Cool! Hogan is able to reverse the pressure and Flair is forced to break. Vertical Suplex is blocked by Hogan and then he brings Flair over with one. Flair goes back to chops and forearms and Hogan stares him down. Right hands from Hogan but he gets caught with an elbow in the corner. Back suplex has Hogan quivering on the mat and Flair goes a strut. He finally covers but it only gets two as HULK-UP TIME! Chops have no effect and Flair drops to his knees to beg off. Right hands from Hogan followed by the big boot. He drops the leg, but Hart takes the ref. Here’s Arn and Hogan decks him. Jimmy holds Liz, while Arn takes her shoe off and gives it to Flair. He hits Hogan in the eye with the heel and gets the pin at 12:26.
Winner: Ric Flair via pin at 12:26
-Good match between these two, which isn’t a surprise as they generally had good matches with Flair as the heel and Hogan as the face. I enjoyed this. ***1/4
-Savage is out to check on Hogan as he is bleeding from around the eye and Heenan is laughing at him as we go to break.
The Faces of Fear vs. The Road Warriors
-The Road Warriors with blue shoulder pads looks weird. Red or Black man! Loud LOD chant from the crowd. Animal starts with Barbarian and Barbs shoves him back into the corner. Another go and this time Animal does the shoving. Kick from Animal but Barbarian reverses a whip and gets a boot to the face. Chops from Barbarian, but Animal catches him with a powerslam and drops an elbow. Hawk back in and here’s Meng as well. Meng pounds away in the corner and drops an elbow to the back of the head. Piledriver, but Hawk just stands up to pop the crowd. Clothesline from Hawk followed by a powerslam and he drops an elbow. The FOF bail to the floor to regroup. Animal back in as Eric takes a shot at Goldust by calling the character a RuPaul wannabe. Meng gets in a shot to the back as Animal was coming into the match with a damaged back thanks to Lex Luger. Head butt to the back gets a two count. LOD chant again! Hard whip to the corner from Barbarian. Backbreaker from Barbarian gets a two count. Meng continues to work the back and sends Animal to the floor. Barbarian sends him back first into the railing and then back first into the ring post. Back in the ring Meng hits a sweet dropkick for two. Chops from Meng and he runs Animal back first into the corner again. Powerbomb from Barbarian! FOF are dominating here which is cool to see! Flying clothesline from the second rope by Barbarian and Animal screwed something up, so they repeat the spot and this time Animal hits a clothesline. Hot tag to Hawk and clotheslines for everyone. Boots for everyone! Hawk out of the corner with a double clothesline. Everyone starts fighting and Meng gets dumped over the top. Doomsday Device, but Meng makes the save. Barbarian hits a piledriver on Animal as Hawk heads up top and hits a top rope clothesline for the pin at 9:04.
Winners: The Road Warriors via pin at 9:04
-The RW were over with the crowd as always, but The Faces of Fear out worked them here. It was a solid enough HOSS fight at times but ran longer than needed. *1/2
-Kevin Sullivan with Hugh Morrus cuts a promo in the ring with Gene. He knows Arn Anderson is a man of his word, but he wants him to deal with Brian Pillman. Arn brings up that Flair beat Hogan earlier and Pillman was nowhere to be found. He calls Pillman immature and has to learn he is part of a team. Arn tells him that tough love is all that is left and he goes to take off his belt, but Sullivan attacks Arn and Pillman hides. Sullivan lights up Pillman’s back with a belt. Arn with a DDT on Hugh and he shoves Sullivan away. Arn goes back to his promo and tells Sullivan there is no honor among thieves. He demands a tag match with Sullivan and his stooge and Pillman says he will get them out of this mess. Well, I assume “them” meant “himself” and “mess” meant “WCW.”
-SuperBrawl VI commercial!
Sister Sherri vs. Madusa
-Sherri is in the ring with Gene as we flashback to Sherri and Parker’s wedding at The Clash. Madusa interrupts the reception and then interrupts Gene as she comes off the top with a dropkick. They head to the floor and Madusa hits a snap suplex out there. Sherri back with a palm strike to the throat. Sherry lands a back kick and heads back into the ring. Madusa slugs Sherri down and lands a series of hard kicks to the chest. Madusa up top but Madusa slams her down, which Sherri holds on and gets a roll-up at 1:49.
Winner: Sister Sherri via pin at 1:49
-Weird match as Sherri’s in ring days were well behind her other than beating up Colonel Parker later in the year. Madusa losing was also weird, but again, rumors that Sherri refused to lose the match. No clue what’s true, but this was definitely weird and out there. DUD
-Madusa hits a nasty German Suplex after the match that apparently knocked Sherri out cold. Rumors and stories out there that this was WCW sending Sherri a message after she missed some shows and showed up to other shows drunk.
-Eric notes that Madusa could have stayed in the WWF as she could be most of that roster. Mongo takes a shot at Goldust, which is a theme for tonight.
WCW World Heavyweight Championship: “Macho Man” Randy Savage (w/Miss Elizabeth) vs. The Giant
-Giant gets caught staring at the women as Savage sneaks up from behind and decks him with the championship belt. No match as the ref has already waived this one off. Here’s Ric Flair and he beats on Savage with a chair and fires off chops on the floor. He sends Savage back into the ring and Giant destroys him as there is no Hogan to come to his aid tonight. Flair struts and lands a low blow for good measure. CHOKESLAM to Savage! We saw a lot of Randy Savage getting destroyed to close shows in 1996. Hogan finally makes his way down with a chair as he has his head bandaged to protect the eye. The Dungeon hit the ring and Hogan just tees off on anyone that runs at him. The Giant just ate the chair shots and wants more, but Sullivan pulls him away. Flair is at the commentary desk and yells about beating Hogan twice. He wants Savage inside the cage at SuperBrawl and Giant wants Hogan in the other cage match. Chaotic and fun ending that was kind of a test run of what we would get with the nWo in a few short months. Heenan being comfortable with Flair up there, when he usually runs is a nice touch.
-Thanks for reading!
