Monday
Nitro #140
Date:
June 8, 1998
Location:
The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan
Commentators:
Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're
at the last Nitro before the Great American Bash and we have a new
co-main event for Sunday of Sting vs. Giant for the tag titles. It's
hard to say what we're going to get tonight as almost everything is
set, meaning we've got a three hour commercial for a show that
doesn't sound all that interesting in the first place. Let's get to
it.
We
open with Michael Buffer doing his Are You Ready schtick. Instead of
a big match though, he's introducing Hogan and Bischoff for the
opening promo. They have a special guest with them though as Dennis
Rodman is back. Bischoff sucks up to Hogan and Hollywood brags about
having Rodzilla back with him. He dares Piper and Savage to come out
here for a fight right now. Rodman gets the mic and says hey a lot
and sucks up to the Detroit fans since he used to play for the
Pistons. Bischoff tells the fans to bite him and Hogan brags about
how awesome the Black and White are. Not much to see here.
We
look at Sting joining the Wolfpack because we haven't seen it in a
few minutes.
Opening
sequence.
Nitro
Girls.
The
announcers talk about the power struggle for a few minutes as is
their custom.
We
get some interviews Mike conducted with fans on Sting joining the Red
and Black. I don't think the main event of Starrcade got this much
attention.
Here's
the Wolfpack with something to say. Nash, the hometown boy, sucks up
to the Detroit crowd before praising Luger to sign Sting up and then
get DDP to team with him on Thunder. Kev talks about being ready to
walk out of the business about five years ago because he couldn't get
a break, but DDP believed in him. That being said, now DDP needs to
make a decision.
The
Wolfpack has had a vote and it was nearly unanimous (apparently
Savage voted no in a nice bit of continuity): they want him in the
Wolfpack. Two years ago Page decided to not go Black and White and
that was the right call. Tonight though he can make the right call
and join the Dream Team. This brings Nash to Hogan but the mic stops
working. Hogan's voice comes from the technical area where the Black
and White are watching the show. Rodman is allowed to set off some
pyro and turn off the lights to get rid of the Wolfpack.
Konnan
interviews JJ Dillon in the back and asks him to prevent the Black
and White from doing anything else tonight. JJ says that it's the
Wolfpack's problem, not WCW's.
Yuji
Nagata vs. Jerry Flynn
Flynn
gets in some kicks to the ribs and pounds away in the corner but
misses a running kick, sending him out to the floor in a heap. Back
in and a high collar suplex gets two for Nagata but Jerry comes back
with a snap suplex of his own as the announcers talk about anything
but this match. A leg lock gets Nagata nowhere so Flynn comes back
with a DDT for two. Yuji comes back with a jumping kick to the face
but Flynn hits a kick to Nagata's head to even it up. Tony talks
about some announcement we'll get on Thunder as Jerry goes after
Sonny Onoo, allowing Nagata to put on the Nagata Lock for the win.
Rating:
D. I'm really tired of these
karate showdowns because there's nothing to any of these characters
other than they like to kick people. Neither guy here is interesting
in the slightest and it's really questionable to have this as the
first match in over half an hour. Is it any wonder why no one stuck
around to watch these shows when Raw came on?
Here's
Jericho with an envelope and something to say. It's a registered
letter from Ted Turner himself. The letter says that Jericho has
asked Turner to look at the Cruiserweight Title loss. Turner praises
him for tenacity and thinks Jericho has a lot of the same traits
Turner himself had. After reviewing the tapes from Slamboree, it has
been determined that Dean Malenko should not be the champion.
However, Jericho's incessant whining has sickened Turner, so the
decision stands. Signed, Uncle Ted Turner.
We
see Luger recruiting Page to the Wolfpack from Thunder.
Reese/Horace
vs. Van Hammer/Juventud Guerrera
Hammer
and Reese get us going but everyone comes in before too long. A
double clothesline puts the Flock members down and Juvy hits a
springboard seated senton to take Reese down. Juvy pounds away with
right hands to send Reese to the floor before hitting a big dive,
only to be caught in midair. Hammer dives on top of both of them to
put Reese down so the good guys can stand tall. Well kind of tall in
Juvy's case.
We
really get started with Hammer vs. Horace and Hulk's nephew taking
Hammer down with a Samoan drop. A running clothesline crushes Hammer
in the corner and it's off to an arm wringer. Horace wraps up the
arm but gets caught in a cobra clutch slam, allowing for the hot tag
off to Guerrera. A slingshot legdrop keeps Horace down but he gets
up a big boot in the corner to put Juvy down.
The
big man beating begins with Horace pounding away before hooking a
reverse chinlock. Juvy fights up again and snaps off a quick
hurricanrana before countering a belly to back superplex into a
crossbody. There's the real hot tag off to Van Hammer who cleans
house but regular clotheslines don't do much damage to Reese. A
middle rope clothesline finally takes him down and a Cactus
Clothesline puts Horace to the floor. Not that it matters though as
Reese hits a chokebomb on Guerrera for the pin.
Rating:
D+. Nothing special here but at
least there's a story going on here. Juvy needs to get the win in
the showdown with Reese but having him lose in a tag match like this
is ok. The match wasn't all that good but it was a huge step up over
the battle of the karate guys from earlier.
The
Black and White has a party with some good looking women. Hogan
promises a new member of the team soon and talks about how Skinny
Legs Nash isn't getting away with all those powerbombs Hogan had to
pay for.
Hour
#2 begins with a riveting interview with JJ Dillon. He reiterates
that Luger and DDP aren't tag champions because Giant had no
authority to pick a partner to defend the titles. Sunday it's Sting
vs. Giant for both belts and the winner gets to pick his partner.
Eddie
Guerrero vs. Scott Putski
Putski
is a good example of a guy with a great look with almost nothing else
to back it up. Guerrero runs into a hard shoulder to start but takes
Scott down with a drop toehold. An elbow to the face sets up an
abdominal stretch by Eddie as you can feel the ratings battle
slipping away. Putski fights out and hits a scary looking release
German suplex, dropping Eddie down on his shoulder. A short
powerbomb puts Eddie down as Tony shills the big announcement on
Thunder again. Eddie escapes a gorilla press and dropkicks the knee
out but here's Chavo for the DQ without actually doing anything.
Rating:
D+. Believe it or not this
might have been the match of the night so far. Putski wasn't doing
anything of note but he was throwing Eddie around pretty nicely. He
would have been a good candidate to throw into a tag team as a silent
enforcer. Eddie was his usual smooth self.
Chavo
punches Scott out as Eddie bails. The nephew shouts at Eddie to come
back because he needs his uncle.
Nash
and Konnan, with the latter in different clothes than he was in
earlier, say they've got some money from the 5,000 Wolfpack t-shirts
they sold tonight so they can pay Hogan back now. The money is in a
Swiss bank account down there. Down where you ask? Both guys laugh
before they can answer.
Bischoff
and Giant are at the tech area again because we haven't heard enough
from the NWO tonight. Apparently Giant hasn't eaten in four days so
he'll eat Sting on Sunday like the chicken he is. Somehow this took
two and a half minutes.
Here
are Rude, Hennig and Konnan in his fourth appearance in ninety
minutes. Rude cuts a heel promo on Goldberg but Konnan does his
usual deal to get the crowd back on the Red and Black's side. Rude
and Hennig just don't fit with the Wolfpack at all.
Chris
Benoit vs. Booker T
Match
#6 in the best of seven series for the TV Title shot on Sunday with
Booker trailing 3-2. Feeling out process to start until with Booker
taking it to the mat, only to have Benoit take over with a
hammerlock. Booker counters into one of his own before lifting
Benoit into the air into a kind of pumphandle slam. A spinning kick
to the face puts Benoit down again and the Canadian bails to the
floor.
Back
in and Booker hooks another armbar as Heenan talks about Booker
having more video equipment to watch tapes than Bob Crane (star of
Hogan's Heroes, eventually became a sex addict who made hundreds of
sex tapes). Benoit fights up and hits a knee to the ribs to send
Booker out to the floor. The Canadian gets two off an elbow to the
face and a snap suplex for the same.
A
belly to back suplex gets the same and the Swan Dive connects, but
Benoit might have injured his shoulder and can't cover. Cue Stevie
Ray to give Booker a pep talk but his comeback is stopped with a
German suplex for two. Booker comes back with a kick to the face and
the sidewalk slam but Benoit fires off kicks in the corner to slow
Booker down again. Not that it matters as Booker hooks a spinning
sunset flip out of the corner for the pin to send up to a seventh
match.
Rating:
C+. This match is another
instance of the same problem this entire series has had: the matches
are still good but they're running out of things to do to each other.
Still though, I can't imagine anything on the show topping what they
did here. Thankfully there's just one match to go in the series
though.
Benoit
kicks Booker's leg out post match but Stevie runs him off.
Nitro
Girls.
Nitro
Party winner.
Hogan
and Hart are in the sky box again so Hollywood can make gay jokes
about Konnan. We get a pretty awesome Randy Savage impression from
Hogan as he brings in Liz. Apparently she's a gift to Bret and is no
longer with Savage. Ok then.
We
look at the end of the Booker vs. Benoit movie again with Tony
actually praising Benoit's heel actions. That's new at least.
TV
Title: Fit Finlay vs. Norman Smiley
Finlay
grabs a headlock and a cravate to start but Smiley hiptosses him down
and scores with a dropkick. Finlay comes back with a rake to the
eyes and takes Smiley down into a Crippler Crossface. Back up and a
running forearm puts Smiley on the apron for some shots to the chest.
The fans do the wave and the announcers actually call it. Finlay
puts on an armbar for a bit before planting Norman with the tombstone
to retain.
Rating:
D. The announcers spent more
time talking about the wave, the announcement on Thunder, Booker vs.
Benoit, or ANYTHING else they could come up with besides the match.
Could it be because Finlay is clearly just a placeholder for the
winner of the series and Smiley had no chance at all here? I'm sure
this match had fans glued to their sets instead of watching whatever
Austin was doing to McMahon at this point.
Hour
#3 begins.
Here's
Tony in the ring for something actually interesting: a Sting
interview, which I believe is the first one in over a year. Sting
says Giant is fat and talks about how he beat up big guys like him at
the first Great American Bash. He recommends Giant loses some weight
and take a shower before Sting wins both belts on Sunday. This was
nothing.
Back
from a break with Tony still in the ring for even more talking. This
time it's Piper who compares himself to Barry Sanders and promises to
hit Hogan and Hart in the head so much that they'll feel like they
just got out of a Red Wings' game. Piper makes jokes about Karl
Malone beating Dennis Rodman in the NBA playoffs and says Savage is
from a test tube. This draws out Macho who will fight Piper after
the tag match on Sunday.
Piper
says they'll fight in Baltimore but Savage wants to do it tonight.
Hart and Hogan (appearance #5 tonight) pop up at the tech area again
and apparently Liz is a present for Eric, who doesn't need Viagra.
Eric kisses Liz as Bret cracks jokes about Savage and Piper. Savage
says he's over Liz but not Piper and there's a right hand to the
Scot. Piper punches Savage back, sending him to the floor. This ran
nearly ten minutes whereas Sting got about three.
The
announcers talk. Again.
We
recap Jericho's tour of Washington DC last week as well as Jericho
showing the 1934 NWA rule book to Malenko on Thunder.
Cruiserweight
Title: Disco Inferno vs. Dean Malenko
Dean
stomps him down in the corner to start and gets two off a powerslam.
Disco comes back with a clothesline and an elbow drop for two but
Dean puts him back down with a leg lariat. The Cloverleaf retains
the title with ease.
More
Nitro Girls, this time in pink.
The
Black and White, including Hogan (#6) are with the girls in the
lounge again to run down the Wolfpack some more before introducing a
video of Hogan's newest movie.
Video
of Hogan (#7) and Steiner on a movie set where they run into Carl
Weathers (Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies).
Back
to the lounge for Hogan to talk about how awesome an actor Scott
Steiner is going to be.
Video
on Goldberg.
US
Title: Goldberg vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Chavo
requested this match and says “be very very quiet. I'm hunting
Goldbergs.” Chavo dives at Goldberg and is easily sent lying
across the ring. A kind of fallaway slam puts Chavo down again and
there's a gorilla press into a powerslam for good measure. Eddie is
cheering on the stage as Goldberg hits the two move combo to become
99-0.
Here's
the Wolfpack (appearance #5 for Konnan tonight) to offer Page a spot
on the team. Page comes to the stage where Tony asks him for his
decision. DDP talks about the talent he sees in the ring and says he
can't believe what he's about to do. Before he can say what he's
going to do, Hogan (appearance #8) and Rodman come up behind and
blast him with chairs. Sting and the Wolfpack chase the NWO off to
end the show.
Overall
Rating: N. As in NWO, because
that's all this show was about. This was a really good example of
something WCW was horrible about: putting FAR too much of the focus
on one idea instead of spreading the show around. Hogan was on TV in
8 (arguably 9) different segments in about two hours and twenty
minutes of total air time. The guy has reached new levels of
overexposure and we're to the point that I just don't care about what
he's doing at all.
On
top of that, there was barely any wrestling at all on this show and
the only stuff we got was decent at its very best. I mean, Booker
vs. Benoit was a fine match, but it's literally the sixth time
they've done the match in two weeks. Of the other six matches, two
were under three minutes, one was a karate off, one was a squash,
another featured Ivan Putski and the last was a decent match
featuring the Flock B-Team. Is it really any shock that Nitro hasn't
won a ratings night since April? Absolutely awful show this week
with the NWO just crushing everything in their sight.
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 each at:
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