WCW Monday Nitro 10/16/1995

WCW Monday Nitro 10/16/1995

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/06/wcw-monday-nitro-1091995.html

Mongo, Bischoff and Heenan are our hosts. Pepe the dog is dressed up like an alien. Heenan says "that's where the batteries go" when Mongo turns him around.

We see clips from WCW Pro of Flair asking Sting to be his partner. Sting says he will give him the benefit of the doubt this one. He says he will leave him for dead if he swerve's him once.

Diamond Dallas Page vs Johnny B. Badd

Page pushes the WCW mascot over. We see clips of Johnny B. Badd knocking Page out on WCW Saturday Night.

Badd poses during his entrance and Page nails him from behind with a title belt. The Diamond Doll is shocked and disgusted. Page then counts his own pin and shoots off Badd's confetti gun.

Thoughts: This would have kept going if it were NJPW. I don't know why Badd had decked Page on Saturday Night as they didn't explain it, but one could almost say Badd had it coming for decking him based on the footage.

Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit

This is CB's debut. He's wearing blue with white stripes here. CB armdrags him. Eddie shoulders him over and takes him down by the arm. CB is pulled up and headscissors him then Eddie headscissors him. Eddie goes to tiger feint but gets stuck. Eddie top rope planchas him outside.

They get back in and Eddie is back body dropped over the top to the floor. CB goes with him. CB is sent into the post then takes a forearm to the head from behind. CB backdrops him.

CB northern lights suplexes him then suplexes him. CB back elbows him. Eddie tilt a whirl armdrags him the nspringboard tornad oddt's him. CB short arm clotheslines him. Eddie's selling the arm and CB hits chops. CB slams him then does a shoulder throw. CB wristlocks him. Eddie gets up to the top and springboard headscissors him. Eddie backdrops him.

Eddie hits a brainbuster for 2 and Mongo says you are dumber than dirt if you aren't a fan after this. CB blocks Eddie's top rope frogsplash. CB hits a jack knife powerbomb for 2. Eddie sunset flips him then punches him. Eddie hurts his own on it and is dragon suplexed. CB gets the win.

Thoughts: CB at least got the win on his debut here. CB's offense looked pretty vicious in this one. The crowd didn't know or care who these guys were and didnt' react much. I liked the work but the match didn't work at all. 

Eric says WCW is working on establishing a cruiserweight division. 

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the ring and shills the WCW Hotline. He says a top official in WWF is gone and says a superstar got into a fight with a fan and lost (referring to Shawn Michaels).

The Taskmaster and The Giant come out. Task says he told everyone that he is evil and Hulk Hogan created him. He said they took Hulk's identity when they shaved his mustache. They said they also got Hulk to give up his colors. Task says the fans followed him because he was a winner. He says they will become the children of The Dungeon of Doom when Giant beats him at Halloween Havoc.

Task calls Giant the future WCW champ. Giant says he will push Hulk off the roof and then take the belt. Giant asks Gene if he wants to see the hand that destroys Hulkamania then claws him with it.

Thoughts: I liked the idea of the fans suddenly becoming DoD followers when Giant wins. I could see kids dressing up like Shark and Zodiac. I think there were some good lines here that got lost in the evil talk.

Disco Inferno comes out to dance and Eric says this guy "makes him cough up his toenails".

Meng vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Meng is wearing some goofy masked hood that looks so cheap and doesn't fit. Jim poses on the ropes and Meng nails him. They trade shots in the corner and Meng eye rakes him. Meng drops him with a punch and chokes him on the ropes. Meng misses some offense and Jim gets punches in. Jim running lariats him. Jim slams him then Meng superkicks him. Meng sticks his thumb in Jim throat and wins via submission.

Thoughts: I really liked this. It was short and all of the shots looked great. They kept a good pace here as well. 

Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart do a promo. Hulk says everyone knows the evil in Hulk is real and said Kevin Sullivan was right. He says it's time to take care of the family business and protecting the training, the prayers and the vitamins. He says The Giant doesn't realize he can stop an elephant in its tracks and make promoters cry. He says what he did to Andre is nothing compared to what he will do to him. He says Giant is on his turf.

He says the stage is set for the ultimate showdown. Jimmy says he's worried about what Hulk will do. Hulk tells him to stay out of this. He says it's machine vs machine. He says they will fight for the truth to show that Hulkamania is the strongest force in the universe. He says he will beat "big, stinky Giant" down in the grave next to Andre and does his whatcha gonna do line.

Thoughts: One would swear the seeds were starting to be planted for his NWO run here. This really wasn't Hulk's best work here.

Ric Flair and Sting vs Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman

Sting is nowhere to be found as the match starts. BP and Ric trade chops in the corner. BP eye pokes him and Ric fights off Arn and BP in the corner.  BP throws Ric out. Arn goes after Ric. Ric chops Arn then throws BP onto the rails. Ric blocks a kneedrop from Arn inside and goes for the figure four. BP tries to top rope splash Ric but misses. Ric then figure fours him.

Ric double axe handles Arn off the top. BP kicks Ric form the apron and Arn spinebusters Ric. Sting comes down. BP back body drops Ric then nails Sting. BP and Ric trade shots. Ric avoids a dropkick. Sting gets the hot tag in and beats up both opponents. Sting pop-up drops BP then facebusters Arn.

Sting hits stinger splashes then lariats both opponents. Sting lariats Arn over the top. BP is thrown and crotched on the ropes. Sting and Ric then win by countout when Arn and BP leave.

Thoughts: It's a shame the finish was so weak here because this was a really fun match. Flair did such a good job on the 1v2, making everything seemed like it really counted and BP/Arn bumped well for him. They tried some tricks as well to keep him down. Sting came in at the right time and had a great hot tag in and then we went to the finishing stretch which had a bad finish. This was 100x more fun than it had any right to be and is probably one of the better handicap matches ever done minus the finish.

Mean Gene interviews Sting and Ric. He announces a Ric/Sting vs Flair/Pillman match at Halloween Havoc. Sting said he was watching the monitor and was concerned about getting tricked here. He said Ric had a lot of guts and showed heart. He said he knows now that Ric is walking the straight and narrow. He said they will destroy these two. He tells him to high five him right now. They high five. Ric says he's the greatest and says, "let's hear it for The Stinger".

The commentators talk about the Sting/Flair team. Bobby said he's sick of Sting and Flair and says to watch what Arn and Pillman do at Halloween Havoc.

Overall thoughts: It was a good show though I was surprised at the lack of Macho and Lex here. That had been a big storyline since Nitro started yet nothing new happened here with that. We saw Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero which was cool to see even if they did too much. Meng and Duggan had a decent little match and Sting/Flair vs Pillman/Arn was very good outside of the finish. Hogan/Giant isn't working out that great but Hulk's new all black feels like a sign of things to come. I liked this one and recommend it.