What the World Was Watching: WCW Monday Nitro – September 11, 1995

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

Monday Nitro

-Eric Bischoff, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, and Bobby “the Brain” Heenan are in the booth and they are coming to us live from Miami, Florida.

-The showdown between WCW Champion Hulk Hogan and Lex Luger at the end of last week’s show is shown.

-Eric Bischoff says that Vader has gone AWOL and now Hogan’s team for Fall Brawl only has three members. Does Hogan’s team even need four members? Based on last week’s Nitro he seemed to handle the Dungeon of Doom fine by himself.

-Opening Contest: Sabu vs. Alex Wright:

This should be interesting. Sabu pounds away and hurricanrana’s him to the floor. Sabu follows up with a baseball slide and pescado. Outside, things get extreme as Sabu whips Wright into the guardrail but Air Sabu misses. Wright unloads and gives Sabu a dropkick. Wright slams Sabu on the floor and tosses him back in. Wright hits a beautiful missile dropkick and Sabu falls to the floor. Wright delivers his own baseball slide and a plancha. Back in, Sabu quickly recovers and goes to the top rope but Wright catches up to him and gives him a superduperplex. Sabu reverses a whip into the corner and sends Wright into it chest-first with authority and gives him a springboard leg lariat. A blind charge misses, though, and Wright hits his German suplex for a near-fall. That’s it? Sabu crotches Wright on the top rope and gives him a super hurricanrana variation for the pin at 3:57. After the match, Sabu puts Wright through a table and like a chump, Nick Patrick reverses his decision. A nice, quick match between light heavyweights but it was just a spotfest. Grade: C

-“Mean” Gene Okerlund interviews “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. He says Anderson spent the day in his hotel room instead of running wild with him. Luger crashes the interview and Flair says that Hogan will lose to Luger tonight. This didn’t really build to anything.

-United States Championship Match: Sting (Champion) vs. V.K. Wallstreet:

Within the span of a week, Michael Wallstreet has become V.K. (which stands for Vincent Kennedy, hint, hint). Isn’t there a television championship in WCW? The way Nitro is going the U.S. Championship is going to be defended every week. As Sting makes his entrance, Bischoff tells the audience not to watch Raw because it’s three weeks old and spoils its main event. Sting dominates the early going and Wallstreet bails. The WWF bashing continues as Mongo calls it bush league as Wallstreet tosses Sting to the floor. Outside, Wallstreet takes Sting to the apron but jaws too much with the referee after getting back into the ring and Sting catches him with a slingshot shoulder block from the apron. Wallstreet quickly regains the advantage, but Sting counters the Stock Market Crash with a sunset flip for two. Sting makes the comeback and hits the Stinger’s Splash. A flying body press off the top rope finishes at 4:13. Mr. Wallstreet, welcome to the lower midcard. This was just a glorified squash. Grade: C-

-Scott Norton vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage:

Norton jumps the gun and attacks Savage before the bell. Norton uses his power to dominate the early stages, taking time to taunt McMichael. Savage comes back with a hiptoss and sends Norton over the top rope with a few clotheslines. Savage delivers a top rope ax handle to Norton on the floor and rolls him inside. Back in, Savage clotheslines Norton again and tries another top rope ax handle, but Norton catches him and gives him a quick squeeze. Sorry, didn’t know what to call that but that’s what it wasn’t long enough to be considered a bearhug. Norton slowly works the back and delivers a vicious powerbomb but Savage kicks out at two. Are you kidding me? I hate when moves that look devastating like that are merely transition moves. Norton continues to work the back and delivers a powerslam off the ropes for two. Norton shoulder blocks Savage to the floor and tries to suplex Savage inside. When Savage doesn’t go over right, Norton just drops him with a brutal DDT, Randy Orton style. I love Norton for that stuff. Norton goes to the top rope, but Savage swats away his maneuver and Norton goes face-first into the mat for a double KO. Savage makes the comeback as the Shark and Kamala run down to the ring, but Savage whips Norton into them and the Shark falls across Norton’s knees. Savage takes advantage of the situation by going to the top rope and delivering his flying elbow smash for the win at 5:40. After the match, Savage quickly flees as the Dungeon of Doom rush the ring. Norton shoves the Shark for good measure. I wish these two had been given more time. Grade: C

-WCW Championship Match: Hulk Hogan (Champion w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Lex Luger:

Bischoff openly announces Luger’s WWF ties and that he was ready to play with the big boys so that’s why he’s come to WCW. I understand the urge of wanting to bash your competition, but this is getting really pathetic. A shoving contest starts the bout and Luger plays the tweener role by refusing to cheap shot Hogan. Hogan takes Luger down and suplexes him. Luger no sells it and flexes. Maybe that’s why Hogan doesn’t do a lot of technical wrestling. Hogan puts his head down too early and Luger gives him a suplex but Hogan no sells that in kind and flexes. Luger bails but Hogan follows him out there and rolls him in. Hogan delivers a backdrop and clotheslines Luger against the corner. However, a blind charge eats buckle and Luger hits a powerslam. Luger puts Hogan in the Torture Rack, but Hogan falls out of the Rack before his hand drops for a third time. After arguing with the referee, Luger covers Hogan and gets a two count. Hogan hulks up and hits the leg drop but the Dungeon of Doom hits the ring and attacks Hogan before the referee can log the three count at 5:31. Savage and Sting come out and clear the ring and Hogan shoves Luger, wondering where he was at during the beat down. I dunno Hulk, maybe he was trying to recover from your leg drop. This could’ve been good if it wasn’t rushed. Grade: D+

-Okerlund is in the ring with Hogan, Savage, Sting, and Luger. Hogan and Savage wonder why the Dungeon of Doom didn’t put a hand on Luger when they rushed the ring. Sting tells Hogan and Savage to consider adding Luger to the team for Fall Brawl, but Savage says he’d rather go with three. Savage then implicates Sting and Jimmy Hart in some type of conspiracy (no wonder Sting went nuts when they thought he went to the NWO a year later). After some more discussion, Sting says yes for Luger and Savage says no, so Hogan gets the deciding vote. Hogan asks Luger if he wants to be a part of the team and when Luger hesitates Sting freaks out like a school girl and tells Luger not to make him look like a fool. Luger says he’ll be a member of the team if he gets a title shot down the line and Hogan says fine. Wow, talk about a bunch of drama queens. Still, an effective segment.

-Tune in next week to see Paul Orndorff face off with Johnny B. Badd and the Blue Bloods will be in action!

The Final Report Card: This was the first Nitro to go head-to-head against Raw and it lost 2.5-2.4 despite Bischoff’s spoiler. However, Bischoff’s announcement of Raw results and jabs at the WWF showed that the Monday Night Wars were not going to be a passive affair. The Savage-Norton match is worth checking out, but the rest is very passable.

Show Grade: C

Logan Scisco has been writing wrestling reviews for Inside Pulse since 2005. He considers himself a pro wrestling traditionalist and reviews content from the 1980s-early 2000s. Most of his recaps center on wrestling television shows prior to 2001. His work is featured on his website (www.wrestlewatch.com) and he has written three books, available on Amazon.com.