Starting next week, I'll also be posting Thunder every Friday. Nitro will start being three hours long and five hours of shows in a single day is too much material at once.
Monday Nitro #120
Date: December 29, 1997
Location: Baltimore
Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 12,196
Commentators: Tony
Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're into a new era in
WCW now as Starrcade 1997 is finally over. We round out the year
with this show, where the story is who is actually the WCW World
Champion. Sting did win the title, after being pinned by Hogan by
way of a “fast” count. The problem is the count wasn't
exceptionally fast, therefore making it look like Hogan won clean.
Tonight is allegedly a huge night for WCW but I wonder how they
manage to screw it up. Let's get to it.
We open with stills
from last night of Sting winning the title.
Purple and yellow
balloons are dropped because WCW is awesome!
The Nitro Girls dance
to start.
Larry Zbyszko gets a
bit entrance for saving Nitro for WCW. Tony suggests that NWO fans
watch Cartoon Network once their moms go to bed. Larry says now he
wants Hall.
Glacier vs. Goldberg
Glacier jumps Goldie to
start so Goldberg punches him square in the head. A release slam
puts Glacier down again and it's spear/Jackhammer to end it.
Gene brings out Bret
Hart for a chat. During his entrance, the announcers think that they
jumped the gun about Bret joining the NWO. Bret talks about actions
speaking louder than words and how yesterday was about justice. As
for the NWO, Bret agrees with a fan by saying they suck. The NWO is
a bunch of scum and they remind him of the scum he just left. Could
it be because most of them used to work there?
Bret is glad to see the
rise of WCW because he looks forward to matches with Luger, Sting and
Giant. He runs down some of the prominent members of the NWO, saying
that Hogan is going to pay the biggest price. There won't be any
running away like there was a few years back, because it's time for
them to fight.
As the announcers talk
about Bret's promo, Raven gets a mic and says that he and the Flock
will give Benoit pain if that's what he wants.
Chris Benoit vs. Van
Hammer
Benoit goes right after
the Flock, but amazingly enough he gets beaten down by six guys at
once. Van Hammer pulls him into the ring and pounds on him before
nearly botching a superplex. Benoit avoids a charge into the corner
and throws on the Crossface, drawing in the Flock for a DQ. This was
nothing.
Post match Benoit gets
beaten down until Mongo makes the save.
Here's Flair with
something to say. He congratulates DDP on his victory and bringing
the US Title back to WCW. As for Hennig, Flair still has unfinished
business with him so watch out. This brings Flair to Sting, who
brought it back where it belongs. Flair congratulates Bret for
making the save last night because Bret is in the big leagues now.
Bret may be a big time columnist and referee, but Flair has a column
from the Baltimore Sun. Flair reads comments from the paper, which
basically say Flair is the best ever. The author of these comments:
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, both mentioned by Flair.
Cruiserweight Title:
Ultimo Dragon vs. Eddie Guerrero
Eddie is defending and
jumps Dragon from behind in the aisle. A very quick powerbomb puts
Dragon down and a suplex does the same before Eddie puts him on top.
Dragon fights back but has his super rana countered. A tornado DDT
puts Dragon down but he counters a suplex into the Dragon Sleeper for
the tap out and the title in less than 90 seconds. So Eddie
dominates the division for months before tapping out in a minute and
twenty six seconds? Really?
Post match Eddie beats
up Dragon and throws him to the floor.
Here's the NWO for the
first time tonight. It's Hogan and Bischoff with Hogan already
posing on the stage. Bischoff says that Hogan is still champion so
treat him as such. Hogan says made wrestling today and IS wrestling,
so let's get some facts straight. He talks about how JJ Dillon said
Nick Patrick was the only referee for the main event last night and
we get a video showing Dillon saying just that. Hogan also remembers
Patrick counting the pin and calling for the bell, so here are some
stills of the bell not ringing.
Now we get slow motion
video of Bret beating up Nick Patrick and Hogan bragging about
winning the match clean in the middle of the ring. To a degree,
that's rather true which is one of the many problems with last night.
He and Bischoff are open for suggestions as to how to fix the
problem, and it better be soon.
Heenan comes back to
the broadcasting booth, saying that he was being brave last week
rather than joining the NWO. That's very Heenan of him. Bobby
ranting and raving about how he's the only one that loves WCW is
funny stuff.
US Title: Mortis vs.
Diamond Dallas Page
Page is in light jeans
here for some reason and starts with a headlock and neckbreaker for
no cover. Vanderberg gets on the apron, allowing Mortis to hit Page
low to take over. A wheelbarrow mat slam gets two on the champion
and Mortis pounds away in the corner. He does Page's spinning finger
point and drives Page face first into the mat for two. A spinwheel
kick gets two on Page but he breaks up the Flatliner and lays Mortis
out with the Diamond Cutter to retain.
Rating: D+.
Oh come on like Page was going to lose the title the night after he
won it. Mortis is a good choice for a spot like this as he has a
solid look and an incredibly solid moveset, but once he became Chris
Kanyon he was just another guy and that's where his career pretty
much hit its ceiling.
Here's JJ Dillon who
says that Sting officially is the world champion, and apparently he's
going to defend the title against any member of the NWO tonight. Gee
I wonder which member is going to take him up on that.
TV Title: Booker T
vs. Disco Inferno
Disco is defending. He
dances to start and is booed, so Booker raises the roof to a good
reaction. A hard clothesline puts Inferno down as the fans are
almost silent. Disco misses an elbow so Booker breakdances a bit
before taking it to the floor. The champ is whipped into the
barricade but catches Booker with a Chartbuster (Stunner) onto the
top rope as they come back in. Both guys fall back over the top and
out to the floor. This time it's Booker being sent into the
barricade as the crowd stays silent.
Disco breaks up the
count before bringing Booker back in, only to be caught in a sunset
flip for two. Off to a chinlock by the champion as we've had a
grueling three minutes of action so far. Back up and a neckbreaker
puts Booker down as the announcers talk non stop about Sting's
challenge. Disco gets caught by a spinwheel kick and a backbreaker
to set up the Harlem Hangover for the pin and the title.
Rating: D.
Not only did the match bore everyone to sleep but the announcers
literally talked about the match for two seconds. Booker T's singles
career gets started here and would wind up having a TON of titles in
addition to ten tag titles. The match mostly sucked though as there
was no chemistry here at all.
JJ is back out and says
no one has accepted the challenge. Bischoff comes out and says Hogan
accepts the challenge. This is yet another big SCREW YOU to the PPV
fans, as they get nothing exclusive because the main event of the
biggest show of the year is being given away for free 24 hours later.
Curt Hennig vs.
Chris Jericho
Here's a match that
could have been awesome if their careers hadn't overlapped like they
did. The cleanshaven look still doesn't look right on Rude. Hennig
looks mad tonight and it's time to talk about Hogan vs. Sting. Tony
claims that the fans going for popcorn are off to call their friends
and tell them about what's happening. If the friends are wrestling
fans, wouldn't they likely be watching the show? Jericho sends
Hennig to the floor and Curt has a conference with Rude.
Back in and Hennig
pounds away on Jericho in the corner with punches and chops before
putting on a chinlock. Tony actually complains about Bischoff
whining too much. TONY SCHIAVONE is annoyed that someone is whining
too much. Jericho fights up and slams him down but botches the
Lionsault by not flipping at all and landing back first on Hennig's
knees. The PerfectPlex ends this a second later.
Rating: D.
This was barely a match at all as a long portion of it was spent with
Jericho in the chinlock. The commentary here is really annoying
though as they don't even react to stuff like the botch because
they're too busy being smug about keeping Nitro last night. This was
a lot weaker of a match than I was expecting.
Post match Jericho goes
nuts, banging a chair against a post while shouting about how he's
sick of this.
Here's Scott Hall with
something to say. The announcers spend the entire entrance talking
about how the NWO sucks and cracks themselves up in the process.
Hall says that being here in Baltimore for the holidays is just too
sweet. The NWO wins the survey and that's it. Seriously that's the
whole promo. Were they running four minutes short or something?
Buff Bagwell vs. Lex
Luger
Another match that you
were supposed to have to pay to see last night, but here it is for
everyone anyway. To be fair though, this is their FOURTH match
against each other on Nitro and their sixth this month counting a
Saturday Night match and the PPV match. Tony and Mike go on a rant
against Bagwell for bragging about a winning streak against Luger but
all the matches being DQ's or countouts. I guess we're ignoring the
pin from last night because it might make the NWO look good.
Norton pulls Luger's
leg as a distraction to start, causing Luger to chase him around.
Buff jumps him as he comes back in and the Bagwell control begins.
He jumps up and down on Lex's back before getting two off a
neckbreaker. The Blockbuster misses and Luger hits his clotheslines
followed by a powerslam. Norton gets knocked off the apron and the
Rack ends this quick. Nothing to see here, but well done WCW by
having Bagwell lose in three minutes the night after the win that was
supposed to elevate him.
WCW World Title:
Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
Hogan really does look
weird without his belt. Sting power walks to the ring and just like
last night, is beaten down by a few Hogan punches. Hollywood hits
him with the belt over and over. Sting gets choked on the mat as
it's completely one sided so far. They head to the floor with Sting
still stumbling around. We're a minute in and the world champion has
had no offense. A slam puts Sting down on the floor before heading
back inside. This is the most offense Hogan has been on in years.
Sting Hulks Up and gets in his first offense after a minute and forty
seconds.
Sting pounds away in
the corner and sends Hogan out to the floor. Hollywood is whipped
into the barricade and we head back inside without the missing splash
against the steel. An atomic drop puts Hogan down but Hogan comes
back with some chops and a clothesline in the corner. Hogan pounds
away at the head and gets two off the big boot. Back up and they
collide with Hogan going down, allowing Sting to do the falling low
blow spot. Hogan gets up again and slams him down, only to miss the
leg drop. Sting stomps on his hands and hits the Splash....but we're
out of time and the show ends.
Rating: D+.
This wasn't much as we only got about five minutes. However, Sting
looked FAR better here than he did last night, which is exactly what
he should have done at Starrcade. The problem here though was Hogan
continued to look like he was wrestling any schnook off the street
instead of the great hope for WCW. The ending sucks too but we'll
get to that in a bit.
Overall Rating: C+.
This wasn't that bad, but it's a sign of terrible things to come.
That ending basically signaled the end of Sting meaning much in this
war against the NWO, but we'll get to that at a later date. As for
the rest of the show, it wasn't have bad with everything going very
quickly and a lot of stuff happening, including two title changes.
You can see a lot of 1998 coming up here and it doesn't look all that
bad. We'll get to the horrors soon enough though.
That's that for 1997 on
Nitro. To say this year was successful for WCW is a huge
understatement, but the cracks were very clearly starting to show.
The problem at the end of the day is that the entire year was spent
building up Sting, but the Starrcade ending has taken away every bit
of momentum they spent 1997 building up. This would become a major
problem over the next few months and years, but that doesn't mean
1997 had nothing good on the shows.
At the same time, WCW
was having some incredibly entertaining television. You had the
cruiserweights tearing the house down, the rise of DDP in his wars
with Savage and a good feud with Hennig vs. Flair. There were a lot
of things to get excited about in WCW and the NWO continues to be a
huge source of drama on top of it all.
In total, 1997 is
easily the most successful year that WCW ever had. If nothing else,
look at what's coming with the amount of content. Within the next
ten days, WCW would go from having two hours of programming through
the week to five hours and the ratings stayed strong....for awhile.
1998 is a very interesting year and we'll be back with that very
soon.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com
''Oh come on like Page was going to lose the title the night after he won it.''
ReplyDeleteIt happened to Raven :(
...que?
ReplyDeleteDDP was friends with Bischoff and therefore was going to get pushed. Raven didn't have such connections and never had a chance of doing much in WCW.
ReplyDeleteDont think his connections or lack thereof had much to do with Ravens win and loss as did the fact that Goldbert was ready for the title and they wanted him to beat Raven (a heel) instead of DDP (at the time top 3 face in the company)
ReplyDeleteI wasn't being serious.
ReplyDeleteOk gotcha, with you going back to the same well twice it seemed more than sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Golberg match the other day. There were only 4 people popping for him, but man were they into him. The rest of the crowd could not care less. Interesting to see because of what he became
ReplyDelete