WCW Monday Nitro 2/19/1996

WCW Monday Nitro 2/19/1996

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/wcw-monday-nitro-2121996.html

Mongo McMichael, Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan are on commentary. They welcome us to the show and talk about tonight's show.

Hulk Hogan vs Arn Anderson

Hulk pulls Arn's jacket off and hits punches. Hulk rakes Arn's back and bangs his head off the buckles. Hulk chokes Arn with Arn's jacket then sends him into the post. Hulk running lariats Arn and hits punches to the head. 

Arn rakes Hulk's eyes and bangs his head off the buckles. Arn comes off the 2nd rope and is lariated. Hulk then chokes and bites Arn. Hulk rakes Arn's face on the ropes. Eric Bischoff said Vader left WCW with his tail tucked between his legs after a confrontation with Paul Orndorff.

Hulk hits punches on Arn then corner lariats him. Arn is then thrown out. Hulk chokes Arn with a towel and rakes his face with his boot. Hulk chops Arn outside. Hulk bangs Arn's head off the mat and then rubs his face into the mat.

Hulk foot chokes Arn. Arn back elbows Hulk then knee drops him. Hulk punches Arn and sends him over the top. Hulk knees Arn out of the corner. Arn teases a punch and goes for the ddt, but Hulk slips out and Arn goes down. Hulk big boots Arn. Hulk then figure fours Arn. Kevin Sullivan tries to get in then Macho Man comes down and nails Sullivan. Arn Anderson then somehow wins this won by DQ over that.

Thoughts: The ending was bad here just like it was last week. Hulk got almost all the offense in here and did little but rough house heel tactics like raking the back, choking Arn and rubbing his face into the mat.

Alex Wright vs The Loch Ness Monster

Alex avoids a Loch to start and is wearing a red elbow pad. Loch throws him off the wristlock attempt. Alex hits dropkicks and Loch no sells them. Alex tries to sleeper him from behind. Loch throws him off then bearhugs him.

Alex hits more dropkicks then hits boots to the gut. Alex flying back elbows him then he runs into a boot to the gut. Loch hits a big elbow drop and wins.

Thoughts: Loch didn't do much at all here and is clearly pretty limited. His elbow did look good though but not much else did.

Loch says he wants Hogan after and I can't imagine how bad that match would be.

Brad Armstrong vs The Belfast Bruiser

This should be good but it's random. The Bruiser is Fit Finlay. Brad is clean shaven here.

They lock up. Bruiser wristlocks him. Bruiser takes him down by the arm and elbows him in the face. Bruiser snapmares him and Brad backs him up in the corner. Bruiser side headlocks him.

Bruiser side headlock takeovers him and pulls the arms back. Bruiser does an unusual low running shoulder. Brad bangs Bruiser's head off the buckles. Bruiser shoulders Brad over and Brad hits a botched hiptoss for 2.

Brad side headlock takeovers Bruiser. Bruiser bangs Brad's face off the apron and clubs his chest. Bruiser bangs Brad's face off the buckles and Brad throws Bruiser over the top. Bruiser bangs Brad's leg off the apron and post.

Bruiser calf crushers Brad. Brad hits back elbows to the head and back body drops Bruiser. Brad then crossbodies Bruiser over the top. Bruiser backslides him. Brad boots him out of the corner then slingblade facebusters him. Brad backdrops him. Bruiser then wins with a tilt-a-whirl slam.

Thoughts: It was a random one. The work was good but it was a tough match to get over as both were cold coming in and the crowd didn't have a lot of reason to care. Bruiser was so good at the basics here and really maximized some of the little things. Heenan even put over that he could really wrestle. I don't think it was the best way to debut him and you wouldn't really think he would get over that well in WCW at this time, but he was obviously very talented.

Bruiser calls for William Regal after.

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

Flair has Woman and Miss Elizabeth with him. Macho hits punches on Flair and bangs his head off the buckles. Macho back body drops him then hits corner punches. Flair atomic drops him out of it. Flair boots Macho as he tries to get in the ring then sends him over the rail.

Flair hits chops and punches on the rails. Macho gets distracted by Woman outside then Flair drops him with a forearm. Woman then eye rakes Macho. Flair chops down Macho in the ring. The two trade shots. Flair back elbows him then does a random Flair flop for no reason.

Flair goes up top and Macho throws him down. Macho then figure fours him. Macho roughs up Flair in the corner and Flair knees him low. Macho sleepers him then Flair backdrops him out of it. Macho shoulders him over then Flari back elbows him. Flair suplexes Macho.

Flair stomps on Macho's head. They trade shots. Flair kneebreakers him and goes for the figure four. Macho backslides him. flairs chops Macho down. Macho pops up each time and hits punches. They trade chops for punches. Macho spits at Flair.

Macho hits corner punches then back body drops him. Macho knocks Flair down on the apron. Macho then top rope double axe handles him. Miss Elizabeth gets on the apron. Woman throws her shoe in and Macho nails Flair with it. Kevin Sullivan comes down and grabs the shoe. Hulk Hogan and Arn Anderson come down. Arn ddt's Macho as Hulk punches Sullivan then Flair pins Macho.

Thoughts: This one was mostly all punches and chops here with Macho rightfully looking for revenge and payback on Flair. It worked but I didn't think it was one of their best matches. The finish was also messy here and wasn't done as well as it could have been done. I was okay with this but I didn't love it.

Hulk hits shots on Arn after then is triple teamed by Sullivan, Arn and Flair. Brutus Beefcake comes out as The Booty Man. The announcers pretend to not know him despite him being with the company for 3 years. Booty knocks the heels away then chases them to the back.

Thoughts: This was a bad re-introduction for Brutus/The Booty Man. It was an insult for them to pretend like they didn't know who he was.

Ric Flair goes up to the commentators after. He threatens them. He says nothing then The Booty Man and Hulk come up.  Hulk says The Booty Man can get it done and says he wants a 6-man tag. He says if "The Booty Booty Booty Man can't get it done, no one can". Mean Gene then comes up. Macho threatens Eric. Hulk says Booty Man is back on track and says if he can't kick your can, no one can. Gene confirms if Hulk wants a 6-man and Hulk confirms it. Macho says it'll be the real war to the settle the score.

Thoughts: I can't believe they thought The Booty Man was a good gimmick idea. It was really one of the worst wrestling names ever and it sounds silly when Hulk is threatening the heels with a guy named The Booty Man.

Eric and Mongo close the show as Heenan had already run off. Mongo says he's been saying Hulk needed more troops and says he's got them now.

Overall thoughts: This was one of my least favorite Nitro's since the show started. We had random debuts and matches, we had another Hulk/Arn match with a bad finish and a Macho/Flair match with a bad finish. We then had the debut of The Booty Man, with the announcers pretending they had no idea who he was despite him wrestling with the company for years. Hulk then tried to get him over in a ridiculous moment. They also hadn't followed up on Sting, Lex, The Road Warriors, Harlem Heat, The Giant, various cruiserweights or other people who had been around over the last few weeks and hurt all of the stories involving those people. I'd give this one a 3 out of 10 and really wouldn't recommend it. It just felt like Hulk's hands were all over this show.