WCW Monday Nitro 12/25/1995

WCW Monday Nitro 12/25/1995

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/07/wcw-monday-nitro-12181995.html

This is the Christmas edition of Nitro (and the last edition before Starrcade 1995). The commentary desk has Christmas stuff on it and the commentators have some Christmas stuff on. Pepe The Dog has a Santa outfit and Heenan says he wants to see Pepe come down a chimney with duro-logs on it.

Lex Luger vs Scotty Riggs

Lex beat Bagwell last week, so I guess he's beating his partner this week. Lex shoulders Riggs over. Lex hits shots on him then Riggs hits 2 dropkicks. Riggs flying forearms him and Lex goes out. Lex elbows Riggs' neck then bangs his head off the buckles. Lex misses a corner charge and Riggs armdrags him.

Riggs pulls Lex's arm over the top. Riggs armdrags him then misses a dropkick. Riggs crossbodies him for 2. Lex drops him on the ropes gut first and lariats him off the apron. Lex suplexes him then Riggs back body drops him then cradles him. Riggs misses a top rope dropkick then Lex powerslams him. Lex torture racks him and wins.

Thoughts: Lex let Riggs get more offense in here than he did. Lex won though and that's really all that matters. Riggs had a good showing here.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Sting on the stage. The fireworks go off and scare Gene. Gene asks what's up with him and Lex. Sting says enough is enough and asks if he's an investigative reporter. Gene says if he has to be, yes. Sting says Lex is a friend of his and he's trying to straighten him out. He said Lex snapped and maybe it was for the wrong reason, or the right reason.

Sting said he didn't get it out his system with Flair and wants more chance to put the scorpion deathlock on and never let go. Sting says New Japan is on WCW territory and says it's the US where the best goes on. Gene asks about Lex and we cut away. Sting tells him to stop asking about it.

Sting vs Big Bubba

Bubba hits punches and shoulders him over. Bubba does a step up enzugiri then backbreakers him. Bubba hits a nice uppercut. Sting hits boots then facebusters Bubba. Bubba rolls out then gets facebustered on the floor.

Bubba elbows Sting's arm and Sting yanks on Bubba's arm. Bubba eye pokes him. Bubba corner splashes him and foot chokes him. Sting hits back elbows and shoulders him over. Bubba boots him in the gut and forearms him over.

Bubba atomic drops him. Sting hits punches. Sting goes up top. Bubba tries to suplex him but Sting rolls and cradles him to win.

Thoughts: It wasn't that good. They had some flubs and just didn't seem to get the flow going here at all. Then the finish wasn't good on top of that.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart. Gene asks what the deal is with him and Sting. Lex said they have been friends for 10 years. Lex said you couldn't have a more premier matchup than the triangle match. He says he's the uncrowned champ until he has the title. Hart says Lex is the uncrowned champ. Sgt. Craig Pittman comes out. He says he has no problems with Lex and says he is the uncrowned champ. Craig asks Jimmy if he will manage him and says he wants to go where he's going. Jimmy says he's the greatest manager of them all. Jimmy tells him to take his shirt off. He says look at Craig's body and look at Lex's body. He asks why he would want to manage him. Jimmy says to grab this quarter and find someone who needs a few good men.

Thoughts: I didn't like Jimmy turning Craig down like that. It made him look like a fool and buried him. And if Jimmy's a body guy, why is he managing people like Kevin Sullivan?

Dean Malenko vs Mr. JL

Dean dropkicks JL from behind and corner splashes him. Dean hits a nice exploder/powerslam combo. Dean pop-up drops him. JL And Dean block hiptosses and JL backrolls him. JL cartwheels over him.

Dean boots him in the gut then JL flying headscissors him. JL cannonballs him off the apron. JL suplexes Dean in from the apron. JL chops him and Dean blocks his monkey flip. JL sitout powerbombs him then Dean alley oops him into a stun gun.

JL goes up top and Dean 2nd rope gutbusters him. Dean then sugar locks him and taps him out.

Thoughts: The finish was not timed well here and it was too sudden. The two matched up pretty well here and Dean's alley oop stun gun was nice. I liked this outside of the finish. 

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Ric Flair on the ramp.  Jimmy Hart comes out. Jimmy apologizes for what happened last week when Kevin Sullivan interrupted him. He says Kevin and Pillman have short fuses. Jimmy says he owes him one as Flair saved him from Macho Man a few weeks ago. Jimmy said he always pays back his debts. He asks if he can come down to ringside with him tonight when he becomes champ tonight. Ric allows him and says they will style and profile tonight.

WCW Title - "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) vs Ric Flair

Ric says he's becoming 12x champ tonight. Jimmy Hart is out there with him. They lock up and go into the corner. Ric yells "woo" and Macho spits at him. Ric eye pokes him then misses a knee drop. Macho figure fours him and Ric ropebreaks. Ric begs off in the corner.

Macho hits corner punches and Ric atomic drops him. Macho hits punches then Ric throws him out. Jimmy Hart stomps on Macho outside. We go to break and return. Ric throws Macho into the rails. Macho grabs a chair and kids grab into his arm while he's trying to pull it in. Ric pulls Macho's throat down over the ropes.

Ric back elbows him in the ring and Hart chokes Macho. Ric hammerlocks him. Macho running lariats Ric for 2. Macho backslides him. They go into the corner and Ric low blows Macho. Mongo says "talking about parts that help you go to the bathroom". Ric suplexes Macho. Ric hits a punch flurry on Macho and we go to break.

We return and Ric hits punches. They trade punches for chops and Macho back body drops him. Ric is thrown into the corner and goes down to the floor. Macho top rope double axe handles off the top and misses Ric. Ric shoulders him over then Macho sleepers him. Ric kneebreakers him. 

Ric butt drops his leg then figure fours him. Ric snapmares him then Macho throws Ric off the top. Macho hits running lariats and Ric eye pokes him. Ric sleepers him and Macho pulls Ric into the buckles. Ric then Flair flops off of it.

Macho back body drops him for 2. Macho top rope double axe handles him for 2. Jimmy Hart trips Macho on the apron. Macho hits him and Ric. Lex Luger then runs in and hits shots on Macho. Macho fights back and chokes Lex. Sting runs down and Flair eye rakes Sting.

The four pair off and fight. Sting splashes Flair then gorilla press slams him. Sting and Macho run into each other and shove each other. They then stare down face to face to end the show.

Thoughts: The dirty finish was expected at this point. While we are getting big matches every week, they rarely ever end clean. The match was okay but not great. It was as you would expect with Flair cheating and working the knee.

Overall thoughts: It was a so-so show. Hogan wasn't around which meant not much was going to happen with him/Sting/Macho/Lex. It probably didn't make a big difference though as this was the show before the PPV and nothing too wild was going to happen. We had some lame finishes on this one and Craig Pittman was made to look like a fool. Just like with the last two PPV's, they have done a very poor job of building anything outside of the top matches. I could not tell you what the rest of the card for Starrcade will be, but the top matches are truly the only things that really matter anyway.