3 hours Ago By RobertLeightyJr
-As I was doing this review, news broke that NFL Hall of Famer, and 4 Horsemen Member, Steve “Mongo” MicMichael had passed away. Obviously Mongo was a big part of these Nitro reviews I have been doing. A few years ago I ran through 1996 and 1997 WCW (and WWF) PPVs and Mongo had a big presence on those WCW shows as well.
His turn on Kevin Greene at Great American Bash 96 was so perfect in its execution and made all the sense. It wasn’t a plan where he was always on Flair’s side and then after wrestling him for 20 minutes made the turn. He did it for money and fame as it was presented to him (by his wife) at the end of the match and he took it.
Same reason he joined The Packers after years playing with the Bears. It made sense for his character and you could tell Mongo loved being a Horseman. He wasn’t the ring general most of the Horsemen were, but they all tell you that outside the ring Mongo was the real deal Horseman.
It was great to see him get his Hall of Fame call before his passing. He fought a long battle and now can rest. Thanks for all the wrestling memories sir! May you rest in peace! -Announce Team: Eric Bischoff, Mongo, and Bobby Heenan -Independence Arena, Charlotte NC -Eric and company get interrupted by a bell as we already have a match starting.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Mr. JL -Shoulder tackle by JL, but then Eddie knocks him down and we get an “Eddie” chant.
Eddie flips off the top ropes and lands on his feet and then catches JL with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Bischoff notes Eddie will be part of Team WCW at Starrcade. I assume because they knew he could work with the New Japan guys.
Sling-shot Senton gets two. Heenan mentions the NJPW stars are already in the country and are training in the Smokey Mountains. Cornette? Head scissors by JL and Eddie slides to the floor as something seems a little off.
Bobby wants to know what JL stands for, and I think we all know. JL with a springboard dropkick that knocks Eddie off the top rope. He runs the apron and hits a cannon ball dive that take them into the aisle.
Back in the ring that gets a two count. Dropkick in the corner and then we get a reversal sequence and Eddie gets the final reveals into a pin at 4:28. WInner: Eddie Guerrero via pin at 4:28 -Eddie probably should have dominated this one a bit more since he was on Starrcade.
Something seemed a little off at one point, but this was solid and fun sprint. Wish they were given more time. **1/2 -Gene is with Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart.
They are raging as they feel Luger is the uncrowned Champion after what happened last week. Luger talks about the Triple Threat and facing Savage and I nearly expected him to break into Steiner Match years before it became a thing. -Starrcade Commercial! THE FORBIDDEN DOOR IS OPEN! WCW vs.
NJPW. See, Tony stole the concept from Eric. Disco Inferno vs.
Mr. Wonderful -Orndorff’s theme will be stuck in my head now and I don’t mind. Heenan jokes it may chart and if today I can see it being big on the Tik-Tok or whatever people younger than me use.
Disco jumps the bell as I guess he is the heel in this one. Wonderful can’t even get out of his jacket as Disco pounds away with right hands. He sends Wonderful into the corner and lays in the boots and then chokes on the middle ropes.
Whip to the corner, but he takes too long as he dances and Wonderful catches him with an elbow. He starts his comeback and wow, that right arm is tough to see with the muscle atrophy. I assume he would tell you the money with Hogan was worth it.
We get an exaggerated Boogie Woogie Elbow and the crowd loves it. Perhaps there is a young Samoan out there in training that can modify that and get it over even more. Bell to back suplex drops DISCO RIGHT ON HIS HEAD! Wonderful gets the win at 2:22 and puts a foot on the ropes just because but Disco looked to be out.
Replay shows either Disco is great at selling or he was snoring. Winner: Mr. Wonderful via pin at 2:22 -This is one of those matches you can’t believe actually happened, but WCW was good for stuff like this.
Nothing to match though the crowd was having fun with Wonderful. * -Gene is with The Horsemen and Pillman cutting a promo on Hogan is another of those things that just seems like it was a fever dream. He also rants about Mongo and The Dungeon of Doom and Gene is having enough as he fires back, “What’s the point?” We are in Charlotte and this crowd is here for Flair and he finally gets on the mic.
They actually put Hogan and Sting in a tag match against Flair in Charlotte? Mr. Wonderful comes out and he has respect for Ric and Arn but calls out Pillman for mentioning his name. I guess there was a point to the name drop then.
Arn tries to make peace as they don’t want any smoke, but Pillman and Paul get into it, so The Horsemen have to jump in to save their own. Wonderful gets his ass beat by The Horsemen as they seemed to have plans for babyface Paul. Kind of a bummer we never got to see where it went.
SPIKE PILEDRIVER ON THE FLOOR! DAMN! They may have wanted to do this in a different arena as well, as the crowd cheered Paul’s career basically ending. -Saturday Night: Sting vs. Pitman; Pillman vs.
Badd; Buck vs. Wright; Eddie Guerrero in action! -We are back from commercial as Wonderful is getting taken out on a backboard. Nice touch as an emotional Bobby Heenan is standing there, to check on his former client.
Lex Luger (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan -Heenan is back on commentary and gives an update on Wonderful. I wonder if Lex sees Duggan and has Lex Express flashbacks? They start trading forearms early and Duggan sends Luger into the to buckle and then repeats in a different corner.
We get another look at Wonderful and can see he is talking to the medics. Back to the match and dick heel Luger is getting his name chanted by the crowd. Clothesline from Duggan and he draws some boos, which rarely happened to Duggan.
He hooks a front face lock as we cut back to Wonderful being loaded into an ambulance. Luger starts his comeback, but Duggan gets another clothesline. Hart on the apron as Duggan pulls out the tape to wrap his fist.
Hart has the 2×4 and Duggan goes after him. Luger decks Duggan from behind and The Rack finishes at 2:44. Winner: Lex Luger via pin at 2:44 -Weird as Luger was getting beat and needed Jimmy to put away Duggan.
I mean, Luger has 2 and possibly 3 matches at Starrcade and he needs help to beat Duggan. Weird dynamic too with the Charlotte crowd being pro Luger. 1/2* -Gene is with our World Champion, The Macho Man and he is also working two matches at Starrcade plus has to defend against The Giant next week.
Ever the man of reason, Savage says he will solve his problems one at a time. The old adage, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Though, I would never eat elephant.
Majestic creatures! Go watch those in the San Diego Zoo that rallied to protect their young during the earthquake. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson vs. Sting and Hulk Hogan -Again, this crowd really loves Flair.
They also like Arn and Sting as well. Hogan comes out after Sting, but to Sting’s music. I wonder if they opted to do it that way so Hogan’s music wouldn’t get booed.
We get a vocal, “Hogan Sucks” chant as Sting and Arn start this one out. Arn controls with a side headlock, but gets shoved off. Sting tries a hiptoss, but Arn counters and the place explodes.
Arn is having fun getting this reaction. Arn with a bunch to the back of the head and again, the crowd is happy. Really loud “Hogan Sucks,” chant now.
Sting with a Gorilla Press to quiet the crowd, but they boo as Hogan lands a right hand from the apron. Wild! Man, July of 96 and the heel turn couldn’t come soon enough. Hogan gets the tag and in comes Flair and you can guess who the crowd is behind here.
Hogan gets a shoulder tackle. Lockup and Flair throws chops in the corner, but Hogan stares him down. Hogan goes Horsemen sign down to mock Flair before firing him into the corner.
Flair Flips but runs into Sting who knocks him off the apron. Arn hits Hogan from behind, but Hogan just stares him down as well and hits a running clothesline in the corner. Flair back in and he goes to the eyes to the utter joy of the crowd.
This match is fun just because of the crowd. Now the chops have some effect and then Arn is back in to work on the arm. Back to Flair and he misses a chop.
Hogan gets a clothesline and makes the tag to Sting. Gorilla Press Slam and Sting is even getting some boos now. Standing dropkick gets two.
Flair gets a kick to the knee to turn the tide. Sting bridges out of a pin and gets a backslide for two. Flair backs off in the corner, but Sting is on him and pounds away in the corner.
Flair brings him out with an inverted atomic drop. Arn in, but he goes up top and gets slammed down. Scorpion on Arn, but Flair is in to save and Sting puts in the Deathlock on him.
The ref tries to get Hogan out, which lets Arn hit a DDT. Here’s Luger and he runs Hogan into the post and gets The Torture Rack. Luger is now a massive babyface in the eyes of this crowd.
Flair drops a knee on the Sting’s knee as we are firmly going to school. Hogan tries to crawl in and Arn boots him back to the floor to cheers. Sting fights back, but no Hogan as he gets to the corner.
Flair back in and right back to the knee. Chop block! Heenan notes Flair has a chance to be a 12 time Champion. Man, can you imagine someone passing Flair’s record one day? Figure-Four and we get quality cheating as Arn gives Flair the assist.
Classic! Flair gets dumb though and starts slapping Sting in the face. He flexes on Flair and starts dragging him to the corner where the tag is made, but Arn just happened to pull the ref away, so no tag. Again, classic! Arn just takes Ric’s place and the ref lets that fly.
No wonder Hogan tossed Anderson out of the ring at Bash at The Beach. Flair starts firing off chops and Sting sucks it up. Flair up top and he gets slammed down and Sting collapses on him for a two count.
He hobbles, but Flair grabs the leg to cut off the tag. Arn back in and he decks Hogan just to get a pop. Arn sets too early on a backdrop and Sting slams him down on his face.
The hot tag is made to Hogan and the crowd is not happy. Arn blows the roof off the building with a spinebuster on Hogan, but he bounces up and the crowd is PISSED! That was a clean spinebuster too! Hogan hits the three punches, and a boot to Arn and then one to Flair. He drops the leg and gets the pin at 13:27 as Sting hits Flair with a Stinger Splash in the corner.
Winners: Hulk Hogan and Sting via pin at 13:27 -I loved this! Sting vs Horsemen is always great and the Horsemen cheating in fine fashion to keep Hogan out of the match was classic. The crowd was wonderful and this was just fun. ***1/2 -Pillman hits the ring and goes after Sting, which brings Lex out who pulls Pillman away.
The Horsemen attack Hogan while Lex keeps Sting away, but Sting eventually gets through and helps Hogan. Here’s Savage and Sting just punches him in the face which shocked me for some reason. It seems it may have been by accident as Sting is mad at himself.
Hogan tries to keep the peace as the crowd really wants us to know “Hogan Sucks.” -Gene is out and Sting says he just started swinging and didn’t mean to hit Savage. He wishes he could take it back, but he can’t.
Hogan tells Savage that Sting just saved his rear end. Hogan yells about it being Flair’s fault and the crowd boos. That’s funny! Savage actually stays calm and wants everyone on the same page.
Hogan yells some more and tells Savage to get his act right as he has the Giant next week. They agree to stick together and the crowd boos. -Eric and crew wrap things up and hype Savage vs.
Giant for next week! Thanks for reading! 7.5 The final score: review Good The 411 I enjoyed this week as the crowd added a lot. The Main Event was right in my wheelhouse and made me happy watching it.
The Wonderful angle was pretty heavy, but just done in the wrong arena. Just another fun, easy watch as this is becoming chicken soup for my wrestling soul. legend 0 - 0.
9 Torture 1 - 1.9 Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.9 Very Bad 3 - 3.
9 Bad 4 - 4.9 Poor 5 - 5.9 Not So Good 6 - 6.
9 Average 7 - 7.9 Good 8 - 8.9 Very Good 9 - 9.
9 Amazing 10 Virtually Perfect.
