wrestling / Video Reviews
Reliving Nitro: Episode 74 and Raw History: Thursday Raw Thursday
Reliving Nitro
Episode #74
February 10th, 1997 | Jacksonville Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Hulk Hogan (2) 8/10/96
WCW United States Champion: Eddie Guerrero (1) since 12/29/96
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (5) since 1/25/97
WCW Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (3) since 8/20/96
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (3) since 1/21/97
WCW Women’s Championship: Akira Hokuto (1) since 12/29/96
We start with Nitro this week because there is no Raw from 2/10/97. I’m going to try a past-tense style for this review and see how it goes, instead of my normal present-tense stuff for the Monday Night Wars. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko introduced the show as pyro shoots off.
WCW United States Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Dean Malenko
In a rare moment, Malenko hopped on the microphone and dares Syxx, who stole his title last week, to get a wrestling lesson from him at any time. I love Eddie, but outside of a good Ladder match with Syxx, his title reign has been very forgettable. They did some good old fashioned grappling early on, before Dean pulled out a powerslam. The match was played to showcase how even they were, with several counters from both men. Though Eddie is a champion in the heavyweight division and Dean in the cruiserweight division, it was Dean who used the power offense. He hit a German suplex and attempted a powerbomb. Syxx showed up and tried stealing the US Title. Eddie cut him off and got counted out at 4:57. It was a fine little match until the lame finish. It advanced the story, so it worked there. I just want more from these two. [**¼]
Before the break, Diamond Dallas Page came out with a steel chair. He sat in the middle of the ring and said he’s tired of running. If anything is gonna happen, he wants it to happen now. Instead of the expected nWo arrival, Sting and Macho Man came in through the crowd. DDP sat in his chair as they circled him. It was all very interesting, until Sting did his typical thing where he gives the bat to someone and turns his back. DDP doesn’t attack and that ended the segment. It started out hot and intriguing, but fell kind of flat.
Bobby Eaton vs. Konnan
No Dungeon of Doom theme for Konnan. This was entirely one-sided and Konnan won with the 187 in 1:22. [NR]
Alright! The Luger vs. Jobbers series returns! Or so I thought. Luger had a cast on his left hand, which brought out Eric Bischoff to interview him about it. Luger wanted to wrestle, but Bischoff said this isn’t the NFL and he won’t let Luger wrestle hurt. Without a doctor’s note, Bischoff won’t let Luger compete at SuperBrawl either. Luger left and out came the Giant to a big pop. Bischoff ran scared and nothing happened.
The Giant vs. Ron Powers
Luger’s scheduled opponent got the Giant instead. This might’ve been even more lopsided than the previous match. Giant won with a chokeslam at 1:47. [NR]
Mike Tenay got interview duties tonight. He asked the Giant if he must face the Outsiders alone at SuperBrawl with Luger’s injury. Luger came back out and confirmed he would be Giant’s partner. Uh, did he not hear Bischoff earlier?
The nWo arrived in a limo and Big Bubba seemed intent with getting his hands on DDP at SuperBrawl.
High Voltage vs. The Steiner Brothers
High Voltage were semi-regulars on Saturday Night, so they stood a better chance than the previous jobbers on this show. Not by much, though. The Steiners will be in a Four Corners Number One Contender’s match at SuperBrawl. One of their opponents, the Face of Fear, watched this match by commentary. This was a showcase for the Steiners. It only took long so they could get most of their signature shit in. High Voltage got in a few moves, but fell to the bulldog in 4:30. Longer than your typical squash, but make no mistake, that’s what it was. [NR]
The nWo showed up to commandeer the announce table. It’s Bischoff, the Outsiders, Nick Patrick and Syxx. Did Syxx just arrive separate from the nWo? He was here for the opener and the rest of the crew showed up later. That Sean Waltman. Always a hard worker. Randy Anderson was given a chance to speak his mind and brought out his wife and children with him. The kids looked sad. Bischoff told the kids to tell their dad he’s still fired! Fantastic asshole work. Bischoff has a heart though, and decided that Anderson will face Patrick next week and if he wins, he gets his job back. If he loses, he’s done for good. Randy’s wife didn’t want him to do it (cancer and such), but he accepted. Nash reminded Randy that Nick Patrick is undefeated. Not a good segment, sans Bischoff being a dick. A referee/referee match does nothing for almost anyone.
WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Outsiders (c) vs. The Extreme
Bischoff hyped the Outsiders’ opponents as top tier talent. Is the name “The Extreme” a shot at ECW? The Outsiders destroyed these dudes and enjoyed themselves while doing it. Nash had the highlight, using his own version of Luger’s Torture Rack, which won it in 1:27. [NR]
Syxx congratulated the guys on another MOTYC. Hall and Nash spent the rest of the promo throwing cheap disses at the Giant.
Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan took over for hour number two.
WCW Television Championship: Lord Steven Regal (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.
It feels like forever since either of these guys have been on Nitro. After a bit of stalling, this got going at a good pace. Regal didn’t take Rey seriously, and it cost him a few times. Once he shook that off, Regal used a backbreaker and some vicious European uppercuts to ground him. Rey came back with several near falls. The bell sounded on one, but it was a mistake. Regal got pulled into a cradle and the bell rang again, signaling a time limit draw at 6:56. It will forever baffle me how WCW could never get the time right. This might be the furthest they were ever off. Solid little match before that. [**]
Kevin Sullivan w/ Jacqueline and Jimmy Hart vs. Maverick Wild
There’s a strange theme music flub that causes some confusion before the bell. Sullivan dominated, but still found time to allow Jacqueline to kick this scrub’s ass. Tree of Joey Lawrence attack was followed by the double stomp and Sullivan won at 2:13. Another squash. [NR]
In the aisle, Mike Tenay stopped the three for an interview. Jackie gave sass and reminded Sullivan that his mentor Jim Barnett, best friend Mark Lewin and King Curtis would all want him to do his job. Jackie promised to take care of Woman at SuperBrawl (they’ll be chained together or something during Sullivan vs. Benoit). Sullivan went on for way too long and said almost nothing of interest.
LAST WEEK ~ The Piper/Hogan altercation aired.
Alex Wright vs. Hugh Morris
Wright brought fire from the start here, getting in some kicks and surprising many. He made a mistake by going high risk as he slipped on a missile dropkick. Morris nailed a powerbomb and No Laughing Matter for the win at 2:27. Another relative squash, but better than the others so far. Give me more DASWUDNERKIND please. [NR]
Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit and Steve McMichael w/ Debra and Woman
The pairing of Chavo and Jarrett is quite strange and random. Benoit was game to sell for his buddy Chavo, bumping on head scissors and a backbreaker. The quality dipped when Benoit left, but the storyline picked up as Mongo beat up Jarrett to Debra’s dismay. Chavo came back in with more energy and fire, taking out both Horsemen. He nearly won with a moonsault, but the pin was broken up. Debra helped Jarrett up outside, ignoring her husband’s team. While that went down, Mongo beat Chavo with a Tombstone at 4:01. Props to Chavo for bringing a lot and making this watchable. [**]
Tensions were high as the rest of the Horsemen, including injured Arn Anderson, showed up. Arn recapped the recent Horsemen story and put over Mongo and Benoit as threats to their rivals. Flair shouted, Benoit threatened Sullivan and Mongo made football references before shouting at Debra for being a hussy. Debra responded with a bunch of nonsense. Basically, if Jarrett beats Mongo at SuperBrawl, he can join the group in their war against the nWo. The real issue is that they haven’t done anything with the nWo since September.
Roddy Piper came out for the main event promo. Hulk Hogan was available via satellite, which angered Piper. He’s also fuming that Hogan made him break his promise to be there for his son. They bickered for a while, with Hogan questioning Piper’s integrity for attacking him and Bischoff last week. Hogan bragged about his multi-million dollar commitments outside of WCW. Piper promised to get the job done at SuperBrawl, so Hogan said Piper belonged in a tree, because he’s a nut. How is that a PPV hype promo? That’s like, Roman Reigns “tater tots” levels of bad. Piper left up the ramp to a pop to close the show. Honestly, I’d have put the title on Piper. He was crazy over, people would’ve eaten it up and he wasn’t much worse than Hogan in the ring at the time. Hogan could win it back at Uncensored or something.
Raw History
Thursday Raw Thursday
February 13th, 1997 | Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts
WWF Champion: Shawn Michaels (2) since 1/19/97
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (1) since 10/21/96
WWF Tag Team Champions: Owen Hart and the British Bulldog (1) since 9/22/96
Interestingly, this episode doesn’t count as part of Raw’s 1000+ episodes. Episode 196 was last week and 197 is next week, but there was no way I’d skip Thursday Raw Thursday. Jerry Lawler and Vince McMahon handle commentary.
The opening video package brought big news. The WWF Title will be declared vacant and the winner of the Final Four match on Sunday will be the new WWF Champion. WHAT?
WWF Intercontinental Championship: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (c) vs. Rocky Maivia
It’s the first in a LONG series of matches between these two over the years. Hunter is scheduled to face Ahmed Johnson at the PPV on Sunday, but must get through this defense first. They worked some standard exchanges in the early stages, with neither gaining a clear advantage. One dude shouted “BORING” at the top of his lungs. Hunter worked a rest hold for an eternity before moving to slightly more interesting offense. Shortly after Lawler compared HHH to Honky Tonk Man, Honky himself came out to join commentary. He praised HHH and claimed to be tired of Rocky. HHH got frustrated as he couldn’t keep the rookie down. Even a piledriver didn’t do the trick, though that move would work better for HHH in their future Ironman match. Rocky couldn’t stand for the Pedigree, but surprised with an inside cradle to win the title in 14:22. Rocky was nowhere near ready for this. Still, it was a solid first chapter in their story. A few dead spots kept it from being really good though. [**¾]
Rocky got a short promo and thanked his family.
Sunny came out to pop the crowd as the how guest ring announcer. She was bad at the job, but nobody cared.
Aldo Montoya and Bob Holly vs. The Headbangers
It’s the Raw debut of the Headbangers. They had a flying nun gimmick before this, I kid you not. Commentary ignored the match to focus on the Shawn Michaels situation. Holly started hot, but played face in peril. The Headbangers busted out an assisted front superplex spot that landed Mosh on top of Holly. Aldo got the tag but didn’t fare too much better. The Headbangers won with the Stage Dive in a decent Raw debut in 5:44. An extended squash. [NR]
Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon brought out Shawn Michaels for a promo. Shawn’s supposed to have knee surgery. As he gave a heartfelt speech, fans chanted “We want Sid.” Vince oversold the hell out of HBK’s title reign, saying nobody defended it against more people or had a tougher schedule. I mean, Bret’s runs were built on the same thing and he defended it against almost everyone. Shawn basically says that he will only come back if he be as good as he was before the surgery. Now, there are several stories behind this title vacancy. Shawn stuck to his story about surgery, while Bret claimed he just didn’t want to return the favor for the WM 12 job. We’ll probably never know the truth. Anyway, Shawn dropped the “lost my smile” line and women in the crowd wept. It was a fine promo, but the most important thing is that it changed everything set for Mania.
Savio Vega w/ The Nation of Domination vs. The Undertaker
Savio jumped Undertaker during the break, so this was joined in progress. Undertaker still kicked his ass until Savio snuck in a low blow. Savio got two on the spinning heel kick, so he went into his boring heat segment. Taker grew tired of selling that shit, so he did the zombie sit up and won with the Chokeslam in 8:49. About what you’d expect. Savio was a lame heel and his offense showed it. Taker selling it was a bad loo for a guy who could be WWF Champion on Sunday. [½*]
Post-match, the Nation jumped Undertaker, so Ahmed Johnson rushed out. He got beat up too, but Undertaker returned the favor and saved him. They sent the NOD packing.
Steve Austin vs. Sycho Sid
During Austin’s entrance, Dok Hendrix had words with Gorilla Monsoon about Final Four. Gorilla decided that since Sid is still owed a rematch, he’ll meet the winner of the Final Four match for the title next Monday. Austin kicked Sid low early and celebrated. That garnered LOUD “Austin” chants. He was just about ready to fully break out and it’ll happen at Mania. After an abdominal stretch spot, we got the expected slugfest. Bret Hart showed up, giving no fucks, and hit Austin, resulting in the DQ at 3:42. Outside of the boring abdominal stretch, that was fun for what it was. [*]
Bret sent Austin packing, but Sid didn’t like losing. He and Bret went at it until security broke it up. COULD THAT BE OUR WWF TITLE MATCH NEXT MONDAY? These fun brawls amongst the main event scene have been great.
Backstage, Vader got interviewed about the Final Four situation. He stumbled through saying he dominated Undertaker and Austin on separate occasions. Bret’s next.
WWF Tag Team Championship: British Bulldog and Owen Hart (c) vs. Crush and Faarooq
I hate random Tag Team Title matches like this. The challengers aren’t a regular team and there’s no storyline or explanation behind it. It’s just happening. They went through a commercial break and Crush hit a goddamn piledriver that Bulldog kicked out of like it was nothing. Bret watched from the back and got in some words about HBK. He’s surprisingly nice, saying he has a score to settle with Shawn, but hopes he’s back soon. The match went on for seemingly forever. There were some tense moments between the champs, but it was great to see Owen come in with babyface fire. The match broke down and Owen got dumped outside, where he hurt his knee. That led to a countout finish in 9:22. Basic formula stuff, though the crowd couldn’t get into it because of the two heel teams. [*¼]
Owen Hart wanted to help Bulldog as the Nation jumped him, but his knee prevented it.
Bret Hart vs. Vader w/ Paul Bearer
Undertaker interrupted things before the match, citing he gets no respect. Someone’s a Rodney Dangerifled fan. Taker said they know they can’t beat him and they will all rest in peace. Vader jumped Bret from behind and gained the early upper hand. Bret fired up and impressed with a body slam. Bret struggled to get the Sharpshooter on. Steve Austin showed up in the balcony for a distraction. He also jumped Bret during a commercial. The distraction worked and Vader set up for the Vadersault. Vader missed and Bret covered to win in 4:55. Too short to get anything of note going. [**]
Bret dared Austin to come down and fight him, but as Austin started heading down, the show ended.
Raw: That score may seem high, but I’m not just taking the quality of the in-ring stuff into play. This is an important episode of Raw. It changed the course of a lot set for WrestleMania, which in turn helped shape 1997, which is a pivotal year for the company. The future Rock gets his first taste of hold, Shawn loses his smile and the main event guys continue to have interesting interactions. Most matches were either too short to get good or too long and dull, but the overall show is a fun watch. 7.0
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