Two matches had already been set up: "Macho Man" Randy Savage would take on an angry Scott Norton after their confrontation last week, while Hogan would defend his title against Luger. The stage was set for what would hopefully be a worthy follow-up. And with Fall Brawl the following Sunday, momentum would be the name of the game.
Tonight's Nitro comes to us live from the Knight Center in Miami, Florida. It's actually part of a larger hotel/convention center complex, and this part of the facilities had actually hosted a Clash Of The Champions broadcast, so WCW was familiar with the venue. We gets some awesome opening pyro and get our first look at the set that we will be seeing for nearly the entire run of this blog.
Eric Bischoff is on full hype duty tonight as he calls Hogan vs. Luger for the title the "match of the century." Not sure I'd go that far, Eric, but it is a match worth hyping. He also hypes Savage/Norton and Sabu's debut.
We also see the announcer's table for the first time, and, oh dear God, Mongo is on commentary with Bischoff and Heenan. I really hope we have no more awful name-calling from McMichael like the first show. He calls Nitro the biggest thing since the "Where's The Beef?" lady and Bischoff looks like he might punch him.
We get a recap of the Luger/Hogan confrontation that ended last week's debut. Bischoff then mentions that Vader has gone AWOL and will not be at Fall Brawl. In reality, he had gotten fired after getting into a fight with Paul Orndorff, and after a brief return to NJPW, he would got to the WWF. He was actually supposed to be the one to face Hogan tonight, but his departure opened it up for Luger. Vader would never compete on Nitro despite being in the opening video for the first couple of weeks. Heenan starts crowing about Vader's absence meaning that Hogan's team at Fall Brawl for WarGames is now down a member.
Sabu's debut is first, as the announcer bills him from Bombay, Michigan while Heenan says it's Bombay, India. McMichael compares Sabu to a fullback (wat.), while Heenan sells how dangerous he is, being banned in seventeen countries. Bischoff brings up that Sabu's uncle was the original Sheik...
As we get the first of many appearances on this blog of "Das Wunderkind" himself, Alex Wright.
Sabu wins the initial lockup and brings Wright down, surprising Bischoff with the flash of a ground game before springboarding for a hip strike. He then takes both Wright and himself over the top rope with a headscissors. He then re-enters the ring, and as Wright tries to get back to the apron he gets knocked back down with a baseball slide. Sabu then launches himself back out and onto Wright with a tope, which Bischoff misidentifies as a moonsault. He then takes a chair at ringside, sets Wright against the barricade, but as he runs and jumps off the chair, Wright gets out of the way and Sabu crashes into the steel rails.
Wright, who has just turned twenty according to Bischoff, quickly takes advantages with stomps and uppercuts before landing a beauty of a dropkick, knocking Sabu back down. He adds in a scoop slam before sending him back in, and Wright goes up top and, as Sabu is doing his signature sky point, goes flying with an impressive missile dropkick. Sabu rolls outside the ring and suffers a baseball slide of his own, sending him into the barricade. Wright then runs the ropes and goes soaring over with a plancha, crashing right into Sabu. Sabu recovers enough to club him in the back as he tries to re-enter, but then Wright returns the favor as Sabu goes to the top rope, clubbing him before getting in a superplex. Wright tries to Irish whip him to the ropes, but Sabu catches him on the rebound with another hip attack as Mongo insults Heenan over his supposed lack of championships. Heenan promptly asks the same question I have:
HEENAN: How many weeks is he gonna be here with us?
BISCHOFF: He's gonna be here a long, long time.
MONGO: I love ya though, Weasel!
HEENAN: Ah, forget it.
While this is happening, Sabu whips Wright to the corner, only for "Das Wunderkind" to moonsault over Sabu's head and get a bridging German suplex for the first two-count of the night. He goes to the top again, but Sabu punches him in the midsection to sit him down before ascending himself and landing an Arabian Press for the three.
But then after the match, Sabu kicks Wright in the head, sending him tumbling out to the floor. Wright then eats ring apron on a flapjack before Sabu walks off and finds a conveniently covered table nearby, which Mongo calls a buffet table (which, technically, having been to many church potlucks in my life, is a correct terminology). Wright gets propped on the table while Sabu goes back inside and climbs the ropes, leading to this:
MONGO: He's gonna make him the buffet!
HEENAN: No, he's not.
And Sabu proves Mongo right as he dives, putting himself and Wright through the table, prompting the referee to reverse the decision into a DQ win for Wright. The fans don't like it and neither does Heenan, but Mongo insists it's justice.
For the most part, this was a good match. Sabu didn't botch anything and showed a great deal of athleticism, while Wright was very, very impressive himself. But the decision reversal, while it makes sense, leaves me feeling like this match was for not quite nothing. Hopefully this doesn't become a trend in the future.
"Mean" Gene is in the ring to interview Ric Flair, mentioning that Flair would be facing Arn Anderson after the latter attacked Flair the week prior. He complains about Arn being in his hotel room to call his family while Flair was on the beach. He then compares the two of them to Joe Montana and Lawrence Taylor, saying that they used to rule the world. Pretty sure they were always on opposite teams, Ric. He continues by saying that there was no path Arn couldn't walk because of Flair and then says that the hand symbol of the Four Horsemen really stood for excellence.
This prompts Lex Luger to come out to very little reaction if anything. Flair immediately starts hyping up Luger, who is trying his hardest to ignore Naitch's fevered declarations of his measurements. He may be corpsing, too, I can't tell.
Wait, Luger corpsing?
Flair declares that Luger will beat Hogan tonight, and Luger simply says that Flair has not changed and is still too much and leaves.
OK, I won't lie, I laughed. A waste of time? Maybe not, as it does hype the main event as well as the Anderson/Flair match at Fall Brawl. Entertaining? Of course.
It's on to the next match, though, as Sting puts his United States Heavyweight Championship on the line against VK Wallstreet. So we go from Mr. Michael Wallstreet to VK Wallstreet? Those initials couldn't be a Take That at anyone, surely.
And we get the first instance of Bischoff spoiling WWF results, letting everyone know that the episode of Raw is two or three weeks old and that Shawn Michaels defeated "the big guy" (Diesel? Razor Ramon? Mantaur?) with Sweet Chin Music. Mongo makes a comment about Raw being named after uncooked eggs while Heenan eschews all of that in favor of talking about Sting's accomplishments.
Wallstreet starts things off with a fireman's carry takeover (the short, kneeling kind, not the John Cena finisher kind) but Sting shoves him into a corner, causing him to yell at the ref to get Sting off. The champ gets in a couple of punches but Wallstreet shoves off the headlock and avoids Sting's rope running, only for a hip toss to be blocked into one of the champ's own. Two dropkicks later, Wallstreet is on his knees in the corner as the referee tries to keep some distance between the two. Sting responds with a hard whip to the next corner, which VK hits and goes down, rolling outside. Bischoff and Mongo, meanwhile, continue to run down the WWF, with Mongo calling them the bush leagues and Bischoff saying that more would leave for WCW. Oh, how right he would end up being.
They do the headlock push into the ropes spot again, only this time, VK throws Sting through the ropes and to the floor. As Sting gets on the apron, Wallstreet clubs him in the chest, causing the referee to make him back off. VK shoves him aside and turns around to get leveled by a flying shoulder block over the top rope by the champ. Wallstreet recovers fast, though, and he knocks Sting back down with a back elbow. Two elbow drops later, he whips him to the ropes and gets him up for another fireman's carry, but Sting reverses into a sunset flip for two as Heenan talks about the Johnny B. Badd vs. Brian Pillman match at Fall Brawl, with the winner getting the winner of this match.
VK tries to ram Sting's head into the turnbuckle, but the champ blocks, and the challenger gets rammed into the corner several times instead. Sting follows with a couple of punches and a clothesline, then sends him into the corner with a knee strike to the back. Wallstreet turns and gets Stinger Splash, and Sting follows it by coming off the top with a crossbody for the three to retain the title.
An OK match, but not anywhere nearly as good as last week. Wallstreet and Sting worked fine, but it really felt like there was not much special that I will remember about the match in a few reviews from now.
We come back from commercial to Bischoff shilling WCW Saturday Night, with the debut of Disco Inferno and matches of The Renegade vs. Maxx Muscle and Big Bubba Rogers vs. Dave Sullivan and his rabbit. Really. There is a mention of a Pillman vs. Wright match so thankfully there's that.
Scott Norton vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage is next and Norton doesn't even wait for Savage to get his jacket off. Punches and a short clothesline leave him floored as Norton taunts Mongo, saying Mongo's next. Dr. Evil, please?
The ref gets Savage's jacket off before Norton whips him to the ropes. "Macho Man" tries to catch him off guard with a sunset flip but it gets blocked and Norton picks him up with a two-handed choke toss. He tries for a clothesline but Savage counters with a hip toss, and two clotheslines send Norton outside. Savage goes up top and drops all the way to the outside with a double axe handle ("double sledge" in Bischoff's words) before rolling him back in. A clothesline turns Norton inside out, but Norton is back up in time to catch Savage coming off the top rope with a brief but powerful bear hug. He proceeds to focus on the lower back of Savage and gets two on a violent powerbomb while Mongo wonders if the popping sound that may have come from Savage was actually Heenan's gas. Make this stop.
Norton is clearly enjoying the beating he's handing out now as he scoops Savage for two backbreakers and a Gorilla press slam. He then whips him to the ropes and catches him with a snap powerslam that also only gets two. He whips him again and this time Savage ducks a clothesline, but a flying shoulder block sends him out of the ring. He tries to makes his way to a different side of the ring, but Norton reaches over and drags hip up to the apron by the throat. He then looks like he's going to suplex him back in, but instead he drops him with a top rope-hung DDT. Norton then goes to the top rope, but whatever he had in mind when he dove is wrecked when Savage catches him with a modified bulldog or face slam of sorts. I'm having difficulty trying to figure out exactly what it is.
Savage is fired up now, shoving Norton into one corner with a knee to the back before whipping him to the next corner and unloading with punches...
Only for Shark/Avalanche/whatever his name is and Kamala to run out to try to interfere, since Savage is on Hogan's team at Fall Brawl. Savage shoves Norton into them, though, and Shark/Avalanche falls through the ropes and pins Norton's legs down, leaving him a sitting duck for the flying elbow and the three. Savage bails as the rest of the Dungeon of Doom shows up and Shark and an upset Norton have a shoving match.
While I liked the simplicity of having Savage (the face) get hurt and Norton (the heel) take advantage, the ending fell flat. Yes, I realize that there is an angle going on here, but this match could have done without the interference. On the bright side, Norton is a very good powerhouse, and I am looking forward to seeing more of him.
Main event time as Hulk Hogan defends his World Heavyweight Championship against "The Total Package" Lex Luger. You can see throughout the crowd that there are quite a few who will be cheering for the challenger, just like in Minneapolis last week. And in fact, as the two circle to start off, there is a definite "LUGER! LUGER!" chant, and Hogan is noticing.
They finally lock up and Luger powers Hogan to the corner and slaps him on the chest, causing Hogan to be very much taken aback. He brushes himself off, though, and we go back to circling. Heenan points out that this is the first time the two have ever faced each other as it is now Hogan's turn to power Luger into a corner, and the ref has to physically get between the two to force Hogan to back off. Bischoff hypes Luger's football achievements, including how he was once with the Green Bay Packers. Heenan promptly states, "Anyone can play for Green Bay!" And Mongo, the Chicago Bears standout, takes offense, invoking Reggie White, who was playing for the Pack at the time. Very nice gesture in the eyes of this lifelong Packer fan.
As this series of quotes is taking place, Hogan and Luger lock up again, only this time, the champion quickly transitions a headlock into a hammerlock, following with a drop toehold into a half nelson armbar. Using the armbar, he turns it into a front facelock into a vertical suplex, which Luger promptly no-sells. Hogan turns around and is shocked to see the challenger flexing.
They tie up again, and now Luger gets an advantage, putting Hogan in a headlock, but the champ shoves him off and ducks a clothesline. He ducks down to avoid another Luger attack but the challenger is able to catch him getting back up and gets a vertical suplex of his own. Hogan no-sells it, though, and he returns the favor from earlier by doing some of his own flexing.
More circling now as there are simultaneous chants for both men. Luger finally stops walking and kicks Hogan in the gut, followed by putting him in a headlock. Hogan shoves him off and is looking to strike but Luger quickly bails out of the ring. The amount of stalling in this match is growing quite tiresome. Hogan goes out as well and throws him back in, and Luger's rope running gets countered into a back body drop. The champ whips him to a corner and follows it up with a clothesline as Bischoff decides to diss Diesel as only having been "mid-level" in WCW, which was true at the time. Hogan whips Luger to a different corner but the challenger gets out of the way of another clothesline and gets in a scoop powerslam. He then starts signaling for the Torture Rack as there may be a 60/40 split with the fans primarily in Hogan's favor.
And sure enough, he gets Hogan in the Rack, but Hogan's arm does not drop a third time and the unknowing challenger drops him and starts celebrating. The referee is quick to point out to him that the match is not over, so he covers the champ, gets two, and then has to watch him Hulk Up. Hogan gets the punches, the big boot, and the leg drop...
And the Dungeon shows up for the second time in the night, attacking Hogan for the DQ. Savage and Sting come out to make the save while Luger is still down. The Dungeon retreats as the ref raises Hogan's hand, but Luger ain't happy and neither is the champ, and Hogan demands to know where Luger was as a shoving match begins despite Savage and Sting's best efforts as we go to break.
Okerlund is in the ring when we come back, declaring that with Fall Brawl and WarGames just six days away, there is a lot of sorting out to be done. Hogan is clearly not happy that Vader is gone, leaving his team at a disadvantage, but he wants to know why the Dungeon didn't attack Luger. Savage demands to know the same thing as Sting desperately tries to play peacemaker. He tries to convince the other two that Luger would be the perfect replacement, but Savage refuses, saying he'd rather be down 4-3 than be stabbed in the back. Sting insists, saying that he has nothing against "Macho Man" and that they both want to win WarGames. Savage immediately adds Sting and Jimmy Hart to the accusation of Luger, much to the outrage of Hart. Hogan finally decides to ask Luger if he wants in, and he accepts, but only if he gets a future rematch. Hogan isn't happy but seemingly accepts, much to the anger of Savage, and that is how we close.
Like the main event last week, the match was nowhere near as good as the angle that followed. In fact, there was far too much stalling, and what action there was turned out to be quite uneven. And honestly, while it would make sense for Hogan to have momentum going into Fall Brawl, I think it would have made for a much bigger moment early in Nitro's history if Luger beat Hogan clean and won the belt. That would have gone a long way, in my opinion.
Well, actually, we close with Mongo's Chihuahua getting insulted and the reveals of next week's matches: Paul Orndorff vs. Johnny B. Badd and the Blue Bloods against either the Nasty Boys or the American Males. Sounds... whelming.
Remember what I said about the bar being raised high with the first episode? This one passed well under the bar. Wright vs. Sabu was good but suffered from the decision reversal, and the other matches felt just... there. Nothing stands out, and nothing is memorable. Hopefully next week, with the fallout from Fall Brawl, things will get better.
And next time, that will be what I review: Fall Brawl 1995, with WarGames and what is sure to be a volatile match between Arn Anderson and Ric Flair.
As for this show:
SCORE: ** out of ****
GDR
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