Monday Nitro #72
Date: January 27, 1997
Location: Veterans' Auditorium, Des
Moines, Iowa
Attendance: 3,970
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby
Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're past Souled Out now and that
means it's time to get back to Piper. Enough of those young and
talented guys like Giant. WE WANT OLD MEN THAT CAN'T MOVE!!! There
are four Nitros to go before the next PPV and this is the first one.
The main event at the PPV was Giant vs. Hogan so tonight's main
event? Giant vs. Hogan, for the second time on Nitro (third overall)
in two weeks. Let's get to it.
The NWO is on commentary and Eric
already gets the day of the PPV wrong, saying it was last night. The
Outsiders are with them.
We see a clip of the Steiners
winning the titles at Souled Out due to Randy Anderson coming down
when Nick Patrick is down to count the pin. He was in street clothes
because Patrick was refereeing every match at the show. Eric calls
Anderson up to the announcers' desk as Hall complains about nepotism.
That's great. Eric asks Anderson why he was in the building.
Anderson says that he was given the ticket as a gift by the promoter.
Eric says that's against company policy (this must be thrilling for
the live crowd) and Anderson says he didn't know. Anderson says he
had cancer this year (legit) and gets fired by Eric.
Bischoff demands that the Steiners
come out now. Here are the new champions and Eric says leave the
belts with the champs, the Outsiders. Either do it or be in breach
of contract. Rick throws his down so that costs them six weeks of
pay. The Outsiders are champions again.
Faces of Fear vs. Steiner
Brothers
They be clubberin to start and
there's going to be a tag title match tonight too. Gee, think that's
going to be a squash? The Steiners clear the ring and it's Barbarian
vs. Scott to start. Barbie powers him down but walks into a spinning
belly to belly suplex. Off to Rick vs. Meng with the Faces of Fear
doing their backdrop into a powerbomb move. Harlem Heat is in the
crowd.
Another powerbomb gets two.
Powerslam gets two. Some of you may be beginning to notice a pattern
emerging. Stereo flying headbutts get two on Rick. Barbarian tries
a belly to belly superplex but Rick falls forward for almost a top
rope spinebuster. There's the hot tag to Scott who cleans house.
Meng runs Scott over but when he tries a kick, Scott grabs a belly to
belly overhead for the pin.
Rating: C.
This was an ok power match, but what was the point of having the
Steiners get beaten up like that for such a long time? The Faces of
Fear were in control for the majority of this match and it didn't do
much to make the Steiners look strong. Maybe that's what they were
going for, but I don't know if I get why.
Ok now the regular announcers are
back.
We get some stills from the PPV
where Eddie got his US belt back.
The Giant vs. Roadblock
Roadblock, a big fat guy, jumps him
during the entrance and that goes about as well as you would expect.
Roadblock can't slam him but Giant easily slams him. A dropkick puts
Roadblock over the top and through a conveniently placed table. Back
in the ring the chokeslam ends this.
Giant grabs a mic and wants Hogan
tonight.
US Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Eddie
Guerrero
Jarrett armdraags him down and
things speed way up. He takes Eddie to the mat and hits a swinging
neckbreaker to slow things down. Sunset flip doesn't work for Eddie
but a small package gets two. Jarrett takes over again but Eddie
manages to speed things up well enough to collide. Headscissors puts
Jarrett down as does a European uppercut. Brainbuster sets up the
splash but Jeff comes back with a superplex. Here's the Figure Four
but here are Mongo and Debra as well. No Figure Four but Mongo hits
Jeff with the briefcase for the DQ.
Rating: C.
This was getting good until the ending where they further the stupid
Horsemen split angle. This is a pairing that could do some really
good stuff with about ten minutes and a story. The idea here is that
Debra wanted Mongo to hit Eddie but he hit Jeff instead because he's
not a nice guy.
We get part of a clip from
Starrcade where Piper beat Hogan with the sleeper. It gets cut off
though because Bischoff pulled it out apparently. Bischoff comes out
and yells at Tony and Larry.
Billy Pearl vs. Ultimo Dragon
No idea who Pearl is. He takes
over with a test of strength and tries to break Dragon's bridge but
can't. Dragon seems to be having some issues with Pearl, who looks
like Bob Backlund. Dragon goes off with the kicks but the handspring
elbow misses. Pearl goes up but gets dropkicked out of the air. A
moonsault sets up the tiger suplex for the quick pin. Short and
basically a squash.
Gene brings out the Horsemen and
Flair is all fired up. He talks about how the Horsemen are reunited
and is very happy. Anderson is proud of what Benoit did last week.
Mongo says nothing of note and Benoit says he beat Sullivan at
Sullivan's own game and says to let go of what he's lost, obviously
implying Woman.
Lex Luger vs. Ron Powers
No idea who Powers is but this
isn't going to last long. Luger runs him over to start but the
referee gets in his way to allow Powers to get some offense. And
never mind as it's clothesline, forearm, Rack.
Post match Luger talks about how
Giant has been leading the charge for WCW lately as well. It turns
into the usual “WCW needs to stand up” speech.
It's the second hour so we get the
traditional recap of the opening.
Arn Anderson/Steve McMichael vs.
Amazing French Canadians
Arn and Jacques get things going.
The Canadians double team him immediately and send Arn outside. Back
inside and they keep at it wit Jacques slamming Oulett onto Anderson.
A double hot shot keeps Arn down but after an atomic drop he bounces
out of the corner to collide with Oulett. There's the tag to Mongo
and he cleans house, taking out the knees of both guys. We get a
double noggin knocker and Parker throws in the flag. Mongo uses the
distraction to hit Jacques with the briefcase for the pin. And
that's Anderson's last match on Nitro.
Rating: D.
I don't know what Arn did to deserve this but he looked like horrible
here. He was getting knocked around by the French Canadians of all
people, not even hitting a single offensive move and needing a
mistake to be able to get out of there. He didn't know he was
retiring at this point so what was the point here?
Lee Marshall talks about Memphis.
Tag Titles: Outsiders vs. The
Extreme
The Extreme would be Devon Storm
and Ace Darling. Storm is more famous as Crowbar. Darling popped up
on some indy shows that I can find but that's about it. Hall jumps
Ace to start and the pain begins. Storm comes in and gets to face
Kevin Nash. Side slam puts him down and it's off to Hall who hits
the Edge for a big pop. That's good for the pin.
Kevin Sullivan vs. Joe Gomez
Sullivan charges right at him and
they go to the floor. He throws a chair at Gomez's back and back
inside the double stomp ends this in maybe 40 seconds.
Here's the NWO with Bischoff
praising Hogan and talking about all of the scientific moves that
Hogan used. Hogan praises himself and talks about how he wants to
make a new movie and take some time off but tonight, he'll face
Giant. Sting and Savage are in the crowd and Bischoff says call him.
Hogan says he's going to go get ready for the match later tonight
but poses and talks some trash first.
Jerry Flynn vs. Dean Malenko
Dean works on the arm to start but
Flynn gets behind him. Malenko is fine with that and works on the
knee instead, ramming it into the apron. Flynn pops up to fire off
some punches in the corner and a big kick to the head takes Malenko
down. Powerslam gets two. Dean picks off a kick though and the
Cloverleaf ends this.
The announcers talk for a bit and
here's a cop with a note. Tony glances at it and goes onto a mic
that the whole arena can hear. Piper vs. Hogan II at SuperBrawl.
Hugh Morrus vs. Chris Benoit
Morrus misses a charge to start and
here comes Benoit. He stomps Morrus down in the corner but Hugh
comes back with a clothesline. Moonsault misses...and Jacqueline
debuts by jumping the railing. The distraction lets Sullivan come in
with a chair shot and the moonsault get the pin. Too short to rate,
but I absolutely can't stand Jacqueline so the match is bad
automatically.
Sullivan won't answer anything
about Jackie. Hart thinks it'll be trouble. Jackie says she
couldn't stay away. She'd never treat Sullivan like Woman. She
yells at Jimmy, saying never to compare her to Woman or Debra. Woman
looks like she escapes from a fat farm and Debra has chicken legs.
Ok then.
The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan
I think this is non-title. Hogan
rants about the Piper match before Giant comes out. Vince helps Hulk
with the beatdown but Giant shrugs them off. Giant knocks him around
and chokes in the corner as he's dominating. Hogan goes to the eyes
but it doesn't last long. Side slam puts Hogan down and Vince runs
in. That doesn't last long but Eric runs in and the Outsiders run in
for the beatdown. This was about two minutes long.
Giant shrugs the NWO off and here's
Luger to even things up. They stare each other down and we go off
the air with a plea to Piper to come back.
Overall Rating: C-.
This was still entertaining for the most part, but it basically makes
Souled Out the most worthless PPV in recorded history. The main
event happens two days later, the tag titles are returned, and it's
on to Piper vs. Hogan again after Giant gets cheated. This wasn't a
great show, but they got the ball rolling towards SuperBrawl, so at
least there's that.
Remember to like this on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @kbreviews