Venue: Florence Civic Center (Florence, SC)
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, & Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael
On this week’s Monday Nitro future dancing best friends Alex Wright and Disco Inferno meet in singles action, Randy Savage gets revenge on The Taskmaster for the latter’s beach attack on the set of Baywatch (…yup), and Lex Luger takes on Meng. Also Hulk Hogan is here to show off his goofy neck brace so that’s fuuuuun.
Champion Roll-Call
- WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Hulk Hogan
- WCW United States Champion: Sting
- WCW World Television Champion: Diamond Dallas Page
- WCW World Tag Team Champions: The American Males (Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Scotty Riggs)
The Lineup
- Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno (**)
- Craig Pittman vs. Kurasawa (***1/4)
- Randy Savage vs. The Taskmaster (1/4*)
- Lex Luger vs. Meng
*****
Eric Bischoff and company welcome the home audience. Mongo’s chihuahua Pepe is wearing a saddle this week, for he is a horse?
—
‘Das Wunderkind’ Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno
This is Disco’s big Monday Nitro debut. Okay it’s not that big but Disco Inferno rules so allow me that tiny bit of hyperbole. These two are future tag team partners but tonight they’re rivals as Inferno goes on the immediate attack as the bell rings. Inferno tosses Wright out so he can show off his sweet disco moves. Wright bounces back, slipping a little bit but still hitting a springboard front dropkick and following up with a spinning heelkick for two. Wright tosses Inferno out and follows up with a plancha, clearing the top rope. Wright cartwheels away from a backdrop but gets clotheslined across the top rope after Inferno slips during a belly-to-belly suplex. Honestly that move was better than the intended one. Happy accident. Inferno takes his time heading to the top, giving Wright a chance to regroup and dropkick him off the turnbuckles. Inferno stops Wright’s comeback, hitting a belly-to-back suplex. He sets up for his spinning neckbreaker finish but Wright counters with a backslide for the 1…2…3.
Alex Wright defeated Disco Inferno via pinfall with a backslide (4:01)
- Enjoyable match. There were some slip-ups by both guys, but they recovered well and made the most of their time. Wright had much more luck here than he did with Sabu, that’s for sure. (**)
—
Cut backstage where Hulk Hogan is doing neck pushups while Jimmy Hart adds pressure to the back of his head with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. THAT’S SO LAME. Hogan is so angry he wants to tear his neck brace off but Hart stops him. Hogan says he’s building himself a big Hulkamania monster truck and challenges The Giant to both a monster truck battle (HEH?) and a regular match for his World Title. Well one of those doesn’t sound like a big plate of insanity.
—
In-Ring Interview
‘Mean’ Gene Okerlund takes us to footage from last week’s Monday Nitro, where an argument between Randy Savage and Lex Luger got crazy heated and nearly physical. Back live Okerlund is standing by with Randy Savage himself. Savage calls out Lex Luger, who runs to the ring all too eager to trade words again. Luger is sick and tired of Savage being on his case since his return, showing him no respect. Luger challenges Savage for next week and says if he doesn’t beat The Macho Man he’ll leave WCW. Savage is ALL ABOUT THAT and accepts.
—
Eric Bischoff hypes their next PPV, Halloween Havoc, which will feature Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant in a Monster Truck Battle AND a regular ol’ WCW World Heavyweight Championship match. Oh, I guess that’s already been made official. Probably happened on Saturday Night which I didn’t watch.
—
Sgt. Craig ‘Pitbull’ Pittman vs. Kurasawa [w/ Col. Robert Parker]
Kurosawa is perhaps better known to international fans as longtime NJPW star Manabu Nakanishi, former IWGP Heavyweight and Tag Team Champion. Being the uncultured swine I am though I remember him more as Kurosawa, the man who broke Road Warrior Hawk’s arm with the Fujiwara Armbar. Speaking of armbreakers he’s facing off against Pittman in this one, the master of the Code Red and recent victor in his feud with Cobra, who has vanished into thin air.
Pittman catches Kurasawa right away with a pair of headbutts to the midsection, then goes to work on his left arm to weaken it for the Code Red. Kurasawa fights back with leg strikes to the hamstrings, a kick to the chest sending Pittman to the floor. Kurasawa removes the protective mat and gets SLAMMED RIGHT ON THE CONCRETE. That sounded like a watermelon splitting, gross. Kurasawa wrenches Pittman’s left arm, bending it over his shoulder in a way it’s not supposed to bend. Kurasawa charges, Pittman backdrops him out to the floor. Kurasawa climbs the apron, Pittman with a flying headbutt to the midsection to send him back down. Pittman goes back to work on the left arm, then hits a release overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Pittman slaps on the Code Red, Kurasawa keeps his fingers locked and gets his foot on the rope to force a break. Kurasawa tries for the Fujiwara Armbar, Pittman escapes with a gutwrench throw. They both jockey for position and Kurasawa successfully connects with a bridging German suplex for the 1…2…3.
Kurasawa defeated Craig Pittman via pinfall with a German suplex (4:26)
- A match between two guys with armbar submissions ends in a pinfall, eh? Right on. That weirdness aside this match TOTALLY RULES, four minutes of two tough dudes just laying into each other. I could have watched this for ten more minutes, easily. Crazy fun. (***1/4)
—
In-Ring Interview
‘Mean’ Gene is standing by with Brian Pillman and Arn Anderson. Pillman says Ric Flair has reached an all-time low after his loss to Anderson at Fall Brawl. Pillman laughs at Flair’s pathetic quest to find a partner while he and Anderson exercise their rights to assemble (Four Horsemen reference) and lay waste to everyone in their path. Anderson brings up Flair’s constant treachery which is why he is partnerless. I think they’re referencing something that happened on Saturday Night because I have no idea why they’re talking about tag teams.
—
Speak of the devil as Bischoff hypes this weekend’s Saturday Night. Dusty Rhodes will be joining the commentary team and Johnny B. Badd gets his United States Championship shot he earned at Fall Brawl against Sting. Sounds like a good show. After that we get a replay of Taskmaster’s attack on Savage on the set of Baywatch.
—
‘The Macho Man’ Randy Savage vs. The Taskmaster [w/ Zodiac]
Zodiac attacks Savage early, sending him into the ringpost to give his Taskmaster the advantage. Taskmaster makes with the chops and right hands, even crotching Savage on the guardrail for a clothesline. Savage eventually wakes up enough to backdrop Taskmaster on the floor but gets too heated attacking both Dungeon of Doom guys that he throws the referee across the ring and gets himself DQed.
The Taskmaster defeated Randy Savage via DQ (3:00)
- Even at only three minutes this sucked. No wonder Taskmaster never headlined a WCW PPV against Hogan. (1/4*)
Savage slams Taskmaster on Zodiac and goes for the Flying Elbow, but only hits Zodiac after Taskmaster moves out of the way. The Giant stalks his way to the ring and lays out Savage with a Chokeslam. Perennial jobbers Frankie Lancaster and Mark Starr try to help Savage and also get Chokeslams for their troubles. Alex Wright tries his luck and flies right into a bearhug slam. Finally out comes Lex Luger who appears to want to join in but instead Giant attacks him from behind and gets a Chokeslam as well. CHOKESLAM PARTY, USA. Taskmaster is not happy with that last one though and angrily leads The Giant to the back.
—
‘The Total Package’ Lex Luger vs. Meng
Luger is still recovering when out comes Meng running to the ring, all too excited to pick the carcass The Giant has left behind. Bischoff announces that Hulk Hogan will be at Monday Nitro next week. Yay? Meng drills Luger with all sorts of strikes and connects with a piledriver but only gets a two-count. Meng chops Luger, who SCREAM SELLS in only the way he can, then settles into a double nervehold (BOOOO). Luger finds his second wind and escapes, firing a series of right hands, but Meng stops that nonsense with a tilt-a-whirl gutwrench backbreaker that almost fully connects for another two-count. To the chinlock we go, the crowd going silent. Don’t blame them. THERE IS A VERY SICK-LOOKING OLD MAN IN THE AUDIENCE WHO IS OOMPA LOOMPA ORANGE AND IT’S TERRIFYING. Luger escapes, Meng hits a Samoan drop but his middle rope nothing is countered with a faceslam. Luger stomps Meng down in the corner until the ref forces him off. Meng grabs a golden spike and nails Luger with it for the 1…2…3.
Meng defeated Lex Luger via pinfall after hitting him with a golden spike (6:47)
- A bad main event that seemed to stretch two minutes thought into a seven minute match. Yikes. These two did not mesh well together. I hope that old man I saw in the audience ended up being okay. I mean he’s likely dead by now for real but I mean back in 1995. (DUD)
—
After a commercial break we go to the announce booth to sum up the night. Everybody is worried about The Giant, I guess. Heenan cleans off his shoe thanks to Pepe, and they hype next week’s show: Hulk Hogan will be in attendance, The American Males defend their Tag Team Championship, and Lex Luger takes on Randy Savage.
*****
Final Thoughts: Kurasawa/Pittman was pretty great but the rest of the show stank and it was hard to follow at times because they seemed to be referencing their weekend TV without giving us any video to back it up. Bleh. Watch Pittman and Kurasawa though, for real.
- Best Match: Craig Pittman vs. Kurasawa
- Worst Match: Lex Luger vs. Meng
- Best Moment: The Giant flattens a bunch of jobbers and Alex Wright
- Worst Moment: Anderson and Pillman cut a promo about tag team matches and whatnot, which makes no sense to anyone who is watching only Nitro