Tuesday, July 16, 2024

WCW Monday Nitro 12/18/1995

WCW Monday Nitro 12/18/1995

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/07/wcw-monday-nitro-12111995.html

Eric Bischoff, Mongo McMichael and Bobby Heenan welcome us to the show. Mongo's dog Pepe is in a somrbero and bandana.

Medusa comes out. She has the WWF Women's Title and grabs a trash can. She drops it in there and says that's what she thinks of it. She says she's now in WCW and says she used to be called Alundra Blayze. She says this is where the big boys play and now this is where the big girls play.

Thoughts: This was one of the more memorable moments of the Monday Night Wars. It was an interesting way to bring back Medusa and I'm sure it was pretty shocking at the time. Watching Nitro only though, there's no women's division to speak of outside of random joshi fly-in's, so I don't know who will Medusa could face.

Mongo complains about people coming up to the des kand says he has someone to stop this. He then brings William "The Refridgerator" Perry in. Perry shakes Heenan's hand and doesn't let go, squeezing his hand.

Ric Flair vs Eddie Guerrero

No entrance for Eddie. Ric headlock takeovers him. Eddie headscissors him and they get up.  Ric hits punches. Ric poses and gets dropkicked in the back. Eddie trips him and messes with his hair before slapping him down. Eddie then does the strut.

Ric hits a chop and Eddie hits 2 dropkicks. Ric avoids a dropkick then Eddie cradles him off the figure four. Eddie backslides Ric then Ric boots him out of the corner. Ric jumping knees him. They trade chops for punches. Ric knees him in the gut then Eddie hits more punches.

Eddie back body drops Ric then tornado ddt's him for 2. Eddie gets on the ropes and headscissors him for 2. Eddie gets knocked off the top and lands hard on the floor. Ric hits shots on Eddie against the rails.

Ric stomps the leg and punches him. Ric figure fours him and uses the ropes. The ref counts Eddie's shoulders down and Eddie is pinned.

Thoughts: That was a weak and rare ending here.I wonder what the reasoning was for doing that. It was a decent match otherwise with Eddie hurting the knee and Ric working it some before the finish.

 Mean Gene interviews Arn Anderson and Ric Flair in the ring. Ric stomps Eddie and Gene says to cut that out. Arn says they are on a rail taking out Paul, beating Eddie and Johnny B. Badd. Arn says he respects Paul but says every action has an opposite and equal reaction.

Arn says we have two rules for The Horsemen - don't put personal acheivements ahead of the group and if you jump on one of us, you jump on all of us. Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Hart come in. Kevin says he respected both of them for a long time. Kevin says Ric has a loose cannon on his ship in Brian Pillman. He says when Pillman knocks The Dungeon, he knocks every member on his team. Kevin says to keep Pillman under a short leash or he will come looking for him.

Ric says no problem but Arn says there's a problem. Arn says if you come looking for Pillman, you might just find Flair and Anderson. Kevin says if you don't keep him on a short leash, this is WCW and there's no allegiances everywhere. Ric says The Horsemen are reunited and it feels so good.

Thoughts:
Pillman brought up The Dungeon last week in his promo so this is a good way to follow that up.

We go to the commentators. Mongo says you have to have friends here or else you end up like Paul Orndorff.

Sgt. Craig Pittman comes up to the commentary booth. He says Heenan is one of the best managers of all-time and asks him to manage him to the world title. Heenan says he doesn't manage anymore but can get him to someone like Jimmy Hart who can help him. Pittman says if he doesn't get any help soon, he won't take any prisoners.

Thoughts:
This was an odd one that was out of nowhere.

Lex Luger vs Marcus Bagwell

Lex hiptosses him then knees him in the gut. Lex running elbows him then hits shots on him. Bagwell does a bad monkey flip, a dropkick and armdrag. Lex slides out. Bagwell dropkicks him off the apron.

Lex hits elbows on Bagwell and rubs his eyes against the top rope.

Lex misses a corner charge then MB hits punches. MB hits lariats. MB flying forearms him then Lex gets his knees up on MB's splash. Lex powerslams MB then torture racks him to win.

Thoughts: I was fine with this. MB had good face offense here and did his job before being put down.

Mean Gene interviews Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart. Hart says Lex is the uncrowned WCW champ. Lex says he's restless with anticipation. He said he had Macho submitted and pinned and said he won't get away this time. He said he will take the title from him.

Sting vs Earl Robert Eaton

Sting armdrags him. Eaton side headlocks him then Sting flips him with his feet. Sting wristlocks him and is knee'd in the gut. Eaton hits a nice punch the nchokes him on the ropes. Eaton hits a shot to the throat and hits shots.

Sting hits a hiptoss then Eaton backbreakers him. Eaton misses a top rope kneedrop. Sting hits a corner splash then scorpion deathlocks him. Eaton submits.

Thoughts: It was an average and simple match. Eaton got a little in then Sting made his comeback and won.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Sting in the ring. Sting says he world knows what he thinks about Flair. He said he won't forget about what Flair did to the kids out there. Sting says he's been world champ on 5 occasions and wants to make it 6 times.

WCW Title - "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) vs The Giant

Giant has Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Hart with him. Macho evades Gian and hits punches. Macho gets on his back and Giant throws him over. Hart gets on the apron and Macho knocks Giant into him. Giant blocks Macho's slam and clubs him. 

Giant elbows Macho in the back of the neck. Giant slams him then bearhugs him. We go to break and return. Giant slams Macho then eye rakes him. Macho lariats him twice then Giant backbreakers him. Giant kind of chokeslams him but it's more of a throw. Macho ends up off the floor.

Giant gorilla presses him back into the ring. Giant goes up top, gets some nice air and misses a splash. Macho top rope elbow drops him but Giant shoves him off on the pin attempt. Giant dropkicks him out.

They go outside and Giant pulls up the mats outside. Giant tries to suplex him on the floor but Macho hooks onto the ropes. Giant lands back first on the floor. Giant chokeslams him. Giant legdrops him then Hulk Hogan comes out. Hulk chairs Giant which should cause the DQ.

Hulk grabs the ref, nails Sullivan then chairs Giant again. Hulk then chairs the ref and Giant. Mongo says someone has to put a stop to this and heads down to ringside. Giant takes a chairshot and goes out. William Perry and Mongo head out. Hulk chairs Doug Dillinger and Perry trips trying to hold Hulk back. Hulk, Mongo and Perry argue and Hulk shoves them. Hulk then protects Macho.

Thoughts: The match wasn't bad at all with them doing a David vs Goliath storyline. Giant was super agile here and looked so impressive. Macho did well by bumping big for him and trying underdog offense.

The angle with Hulk swinging the chair at people was pretty wild. That is just not something we had ever really seen Hulk do. To me it was pretty clear that he knew his face shtick wasn't working and stuff like this and him going to the darkside were ways to try and freshen up the character.

Perry tripping and falling was pretty wild and I was shocked Hulk was chairing the ref and Doug Dillinger.

Mean Gene interviews Macho and Hulk in the ring. Gene says Hulk risks suspension. Hulk says a lot of people here risk probation. He said these people get title matches and asks about Hulk Hogan. The Giant comes down, Kevin Sullivan and Craig Pittman hold him back. Hulk runs down and chairs Giant and Kevin. Hulk then says, "oooh yeah". Hulk says it's going crazy in WCW. He says he's sick of this probation stuff and says his name is on the belt. Hulk says Macho owes him a title shot.

Macho says he has to defend the title vs Flair first. He says he then has to get past Starrcade. He says then he can fight Hulk. Hulk asks if people want to see him and Macho. Hulk says he respects Mongo and William Perry but says not to make a mistake in Hulk's arena or he will take them out fast. Hulk says good luck with Flair. Macho asks for a favor. He asks for the chair and says he will make a fortune with the chair in memorabilia with Sullivan's and Giant's imprints on it.

Thoughts: I've never seen anyone as excited to be passed up for a title shot like Hulk. Macho outright passed him up here and he didn't seem to care. This didn't do much to establish Macho though and anytime Macho and Hulk are together, Macho always ends up taking a backseat to him.

The commentators discuss what happened after and Heenan tells Mongo to stay in his seat. Eric says we will see Macho vs Flair next week.

Overall thoughts: It was a good episode of Nitro with Hulk going crazy chairing everyone and some solid wrestling to fill the rest of the show. I'm interested to see what the consequences for Hulk's actions are as he really should be suspended. They are hotshotting stuff right and left on this show and giving away big matches every week here. While it works at the moment, they are going to pay for it later like someone who had too much to drink. And as usual, there's basically no time for anyone outside of the main event rotation and I don't think they are doing a good job hyping up anything but the two main matches. Madusa also threw the WWF Women's Title belt in the trash in a legendary moment.

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