WrestleMania 39 Predictions

WrestleMania Season is upon us again and I figured it would be a time to dust off the keyboard, give Kick Out at 2! a facelift, and share my complete rundown and predictions of this year’s WrestleMania card.

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes

Robbie’s Pick: Cody Rhodes – This was a match that we never in a million years imagined would have happened. During the original version of Kick Out at 2! I don’t believe any of us saw Roman Reigns capable of achieving the Superstar status that he has since he won the WWE Universal Championship in August of 2020. Cody had been gone from the WWE with no signs of returning, especially since he was an integral part in the formation of All Elite Wrestling but it seemed like Cody achieving his dream of winning the WWE World Championship was something he simply couldn’t shake. Since his return to the company, you can tell the experience that he picked up from wrestling all around the world coupled with his knowledge of the WWE system has easily established him as their top babyface for years to come.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens

Robbie’s Pick: Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens – The Bloodline overall has been a fantastic story and the glue that has held the WWE together for the past few years. The Usos have been one of my favorite tag teams since their debut and I can remember vividly having a conversation with my friends about how they should just lean into their lineage with Roman and create an ultimate Heel stable “The Lineage” or “The Bloodline” were even tossed around as names for them so I remember legit marking out when it not only happened but they went with the name! During the course of The Bloodline story, Sami Zayn organically rose to the position of a top babyface and begin to crossover into the story being told with Kevin Owens. WWE is in a good spot right now having not only a great babyface with Cody Rhodes but KO and Sami as well.

United States Championship Match: Austin Theory vs. John Cena

Robbie’s Pick: John Cena – I know, I know. The past me would seriously be losing his mind if he knew the present-day me was favoring a version of John Cena who is 21 years into his career beating an up-and-comer for one of WWE’s most established second-tier championships. Therein lies the problem, The United States Championship when in the hands of the right performer can be a very credible storytelling device, simply put Austin Theory isn’t there yet for me as well as a lot of other fans out there. He still needs some work and there have been sparks of genius behind his character but there is something missing that I simply don’t see at this point in his career. I could easily see Cena beating Theory here and the RAW after Mania Cena reinstates his United States open challenge only to be answered by a debuting “Switchblade” Jay White who then takes the title.

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley

Robbie’s Pick: Rhea Ripley – Unfortunately Charlotte Flair has the same problem Randy Orton had for the majority of his career. She’s a natural heel but wrestles the style of a baby face so she comes across as indifferent to most of the fans. She’s an amazing wrestler but Rhea is so incredibly over with the fans right now that I believe her association with The Judgment Day is actually holding her back. I see Rhea picking up the victory here over Flair and moving over to SmackDown with a fresh start as a champion and possibly leaving Judgment Day behind in the process.

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus

Robbie’s Pick: Gunther – Gunther has been impressive since his debut as Walter in NXT: UK and that hasn’t slowed since his addition to the Main Roaster and his name change. Since he picked up the Intercontinental Championship he has definitely restored the prestige to the title and I love what has done during his reign and character development with Imperium. On the flip side of that, I hope to see Sheamus eventually win the title. If Gunthur can keep the title for just a little over 5 more months he will surpass The Honky Tonk Man’s run as the longest-reigning champion. I’d love to see that happen as much as I’d love to see Sheamus finally win the one title that he hasn’t during his career, so I’m torn. I figure Gunther picks up the win here due to Sheamus and Drew being so focused on trying to outdo the other one.

RAW Women’s Championship Match: Bianca Belair vs. Asuka

Robbie’s Pick: Asuka – WWE has an opportunity here to keep an undefeated streak going with Bianca for WrestleMania appearances but I believe it’s now or never for Asuka. Since her return at the Royal Rumble and channeling her Kana character from Japan she has been more interesting than her previous character that Vince McMahon simply had lost touch with. Asuka’s definitely one I can see benefiting under the creative control of Triple H and I would love to see what a champion version of this current character would be capable of going forward.

Six-Woman Tag Team Match: Trish Stratus, Lita & Becky Lynch vs. Damage CTRL

Robbie’s Pick: Trish Stratus, Lita and Becky Lynch – It seems like this is the match that we should have had at Elimination Chamber but better late than never. Some folks see this as an opportunity for Trish to turn on Becky and Lita but I don’t think we get a revisit of the WrestleMania 20 heel-turn again. This seems like the feel-good WrestleMania moment for the fans to see “Becky and The Legends” pick up a victory before they move on to defending the WWE Womens Tag Team Championships against Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler down the road.

Women’s WrestleMania Showcase Match: Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan vs Natalya & Shotzi vs Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green vs Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler

Robbie’s Pick: Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler – I’m not sure what it is with Ronda Rousey these days but she definitely has fallen out of favor with the fans, which is sad and disappointing. She’s a main name and big money draw but she just hasn’t fallen into the groove yet despite being a special attraction for the company. Her Mixed-Tag Match with Kurt Angle against Stephanie McMahon and Triple H was a strong outing for her and really showcased what she was capable of. I believe establishing her as a dominant tag team with Shayna going forward will be the best way to utilize her and what she can offer the world of professional wrestling.

Men’s WrestleMania Showcase Match: Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs The Street Profits vs Alpha Academy vs The Viking Raiders

Robbie’s Pick: The Street Profits – I understand when WrestleMania comes around the idea is to get as many people on the card as possible. Having two similar tag team matches during this event has reminded me of WrestleMania 19 when we saw both the World Tag Team and WWE Tag Team Championships defended in Triple Threat Tag Team Matches. So the idea of seeing two of the same match types happening during WrestleMania isn’t a new concept. For this match, I’m definitely going with The Sreet Profits. These guys are absolutely insanely over with the crowd and I have been lucky enough to see them perform three times in the past two years live. I don’t think these guys have ever been involved in a bad match and the athleticism that is effortlessly displayed by Montez Ford will ultimately make him the MVP of this match yet again.

Hell in a Cell Match: Edge vs. “The Demon” Finn Bálor

Robbie’s Pick: Finn Balor – My gut instinct is to pick Edge as the winner. Simply because I could see Rhea Ripley being the only member of The Judgment Day to pick up a victory at WrestleMania and leave the group immediately after. Also, Edge has said on multiple occasions that he is nearing the twilight of his career, specifically the in-ring portion of it that second chapter that none of us ever thought we would have a chance to see again. Despite a great fairy tale ending for Edge’s inevitable retirement, Finn really needs this win though. Edge picked up a solid victory over AJ Styles last year so Finn picking up the win here is exactly what he needs to re-establish his character. Hopefully, the Judgment Day angle will result in a payoff and Finn will be inserted back into the title picture and have a new version of The Demon that he will be able to call upon when needed.

Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio

Robbie’s Pick: Rey Mysterio – After watching Rey Mysterio’s WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last night I feel that Rey will be the rightful winner of this match. It was interesting to see them continuing the storyline through the actual Hall of Fame event itself but as far as feel-good WrestleMania moments go, I feel Rey winning is the logical answer. However, I don’t see it being the end of his career as active Hall of Famers continuing to wrestle has become somewhat the norm as of late. I most likely see this feud continuing at a later time and when Rey is finally ready to hang up his boots Dominic will be the one to retire him, take his mask and carry on the Mysterio legacy for a new generation.

Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. Logan Paul

Robbie’s Pick: Seth “Freakin” Rollins – Seth continues to be over as hell with the audience and when I was live in attendance the crowd singing along with his music was something surreal and very neat to experience firsthand. I can only imagine what that will sound like at WrestleMania. Ever since The Shield fell apart Seth has been the most consistent wrestler on the WWE roster with only a few misses here and there. Part of me could see him taking a loss to Logan Paul and changing his gimmick a bit based on his statement that if he “couldn’t beat Logan Paul then maybe he was a joke.” on RAW the other night. I hope Seth wins but I think it’s time to drop the “Freakin” out of his name for sure as it sounds like a lingering forced McMahon-ism.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

Robbie’s Pick: Brock Lesnar – Unfortunately this is the match I feel that I am the least interested in and that is coming from a huge Brock Lesnar fan. Omos is definitely a legit monster but sadly he continues to show his limitations in matches. He does do a better job than some other giants from the past but this match to me seems very out of place unless it is used to set up a future story. I expect Brock to pick up a pretty quick win unless they use this moment to finally re-establish The Hurt Business as that continues to be teased regularly by MVP.

“Do I Have Everyone’s Attention… Again?”

Ladies & Gentleman. Boys & Girls. If you would, please join me in opening your hymnals to “The Cult of Personality.”

• 

Wow, it has been awhile! I know it has been a long time since anyone has seen any content coming from Kick Out at 2! But there have been multiple reasons for this, especially on my end. Most of which were addressed in my last entry from 5 years ago “Robbie’s Thoughts on the Current State of WWE” – the fact that this was 5 years with AJ Styles still being the only Superstar that WWE elevated is pretty sad. Words that I wrote 5 years ago still ring true for the most part proving that WWE was in a holding pattern. Not only were they in a holding pattern but they have proven that they were not interested in creating a lot of future, dependable talent, establishing solid charismatic characters or solidifying their top hold on the world of professional wrestling. WWE had for all intents and purposes become a nostalgia act, which is fine. Hell, I got excited last month when John Cena returned. When Edge came back in the Royal Rumble? Excited! Goldberg? Yes, please. But the fact that I was so obsessed with wrestling at one time and I found myself only getting excited for people who were around The Attitude Era or The Ruthless Aggression Era pretty much solidified that I had become Vince McMahon’s target audience. A ‘casual fan”

Ironically enough a returning wrestling personality is what brings me back to dust off the keyboard here at Kick Out at 2! A few weeks ago news and rumors broke that CM Punk and Daniel Bryan would be returning to the ring with AEW most likely being their new home. I started getting excited and found myself in conversations with Shane again wondering if it would really happen. Shane had been trying to get me into AEW but wasn’t having much success, not for lack of trying it’s just he knew I had become a casual fan and I found the thought of investing into a whole new roster a bit intimidating or taxing. The first thing that grabbed my attention was Alistair Black jumping ship, debuting his Malakai Black persona and then Christian Cage challenging for The Impact World Championship. This mix of a modern wrestler I really enjoyed as well as a long time favorite was a perfect mix of things to cause me to take notice and invest some time into watching. All this happening amidst the rumors of an inevitable CM Punk return had me hooked for sure.

Tonight, along with countless other CM Punk fans, something happened that we thought would never happen again. At the top of “AEW’s Rampage” broadcast the Allstate Arena was immediately bombarded with chants of “CM PUNK!” followed by that iconic entrance music from “In Living Color.” I, along with most of the wrestling world, screamed with excitement and disbelief, as we all turned into Michael Scott shouting “OH MY GOD! OK, IT’S HAPPENING. STAY CALM, EVERYONE! STAY F***ING CALM!”  But clearly none of us stayed calm.

Watching Punk walk to the ring brought something back what I haven’t felt in a long time while watching wrestling… joy. For the first time in a very long time watching wrestling felt like pure joy and not a chore and that was absolutely refreshing. What followed next was a 20 minute promo of Punk explaining why he was back and what his intentions were. Punk’s WWE Championship title reign as well as his time in WWE was a very fun and instrumental time in my life. I had a blast following his run in WWE and starting Kick Out at 2 with Shane and following his WWE Championship reign during 2013 was probably some of the most fun I’ve had with this site and if Punk is back, well that means I am too.

– Robbie J.

Kick Out at Nitro! – 10/7/96 – “Stop saying New World Odor, Larry!”

Welcome back, everyone, to another exciting edition of Kick Out at Nitro, brought to you by KickOutat2.com and GimmicksInc.com. Last week was light on the nWo action, but we did feel their presence through the paid advertising and cutaways to their hotel room where they were hobnobbing with the Erik Watts of NASCAR, Kyle Petty. With Elizabeth seemingly in cahoots with the nWo and Macho Man throwing an unholy fit about it, this week will hopefully have some answers to last week’s questions as we head into Halloween Havoc.

Hogan is STILL red and yellow in the opening graphics! Get on the ball, WCW! The dude turned his back on you…stop glorifying him in your opening credits.

Tony Schiavone welcomes us to Savannah, GA, as the opening pyro fires and Harlem Heat is already in the ring. We ignore them, however, and talk about Liz. Tony mentions that the situation is confusing and that Liz was clearly distraught, but Larry Zybszko says there’s no confusion, she’s clearly in the “New World Odor.” Please, Larry…just stop!

We cut to clips of Saturday Night, where Col. Parker helped cost Public Enemy the Tag Team Championship. Harlem Heat are the new Tag Team Champions. Guess this is why we saw Public Enemy get attacked by the Faces of Fear last week.

Match #1: Non-Title Match – Harlem Heat (WCW Tag Team Champions) w/ Col. Robert Parker & Sister Sherri VS Public Enemy

Lots of jaw jacking between Rocco Rock and the Harlem Heat before the match. Referee Nick Patrick, still in his neck brace from last week, gets them separated and starts the match. Grunge starts the match with Booker T, poking him in the eye and controlling the match until he tags out to Rock. Booker Tags out to Stevie Ray and the boots get put to Rock hard. Rock slides out of the ring and grabs Sherri by the coat, backing her into the guard rail and apparently shocking the hell out of her, but Stevie Ray comes to the rescue and tosses him back into the ring.

Commercial break and we come back to Elizabeth knocking on the Macho Man’s dressing room. She wants to explain and slowly opens the door, but Randy isn’t in the room.

Back to the match and we get it big side slam from Stevie Ray to Rocco. Tag into Booker and a HUGE Harlem Side Kick but only a one count. Booker tosses Rock out of the ring and goes to distract the referee while Stevie Ray holds Rock for Sherri to slap before sending him into the guardrail hard and tossing him back into the ring for a two count from Booker.

During the match, the crowd starts to boo, and we cut to the crowd where Hall, Nash, Dibiase, Vincent, and Syxx are standing. Hall calls Harlem Heat a couple of hillbillies. Nash says that at Halloween Havoc they’re going to snap into the Tag Team Championships. Hall and Nash are wearing nose strips like Harlem Heat, and Nash says that he knows why they wear them because they can smell the fear from there. They continue to run their mouths during the match, which no one is paying any attention to anymore. As the screen goes back to fullscreen on the match, Booker jumps ¾ of the way across the ring for an elbow drop, which is super impressive.

Tony mentions the Sting car again and Larry calls it a temper tantrum and asks if you would buy a teenager throwing a temper tantrum a car. C’mon, Larry! Get with the program here!

Sherri begins nuzzling up to Nick Patrick, distracting him, as Harlem Heat and Parker do pretty much EVERYTHING to Harlem Heat. Parker pushes Rock off of the top rope and through the table that Public Enemy setup earlier. They then chop block Grunge and start beating him with a chair. Sherri stops distracting Patrick long enough for him to count the pin on Grunge.

Winners: Harlem Heat

Tony gets word that a limo has pulled up in the backstage area. They speculate that it’s Hogan since we’ve already seen the other members of the nWo in the arena. Out of the limo, though, comes J-E-Double F-J-A-Double R-E-Double T. HAHA, that’s Jeff Jarrett! Jarrett is in a full white outfit, but wearing sunglasses at night and a black leather coat. Fashion was NEVER something that this version of Jarrett was into, to say the least. Jarrett says that he’s got something to say as we head to commercial. Tony tells us not to go away, making it seem like Jarrett is going to have ANYTHING that ANYONE wants to hear.

Look…I’m a Jarrett fan, actually. Not of THIS version, though.

We come back from commercial break and we cut to a replay from Saturday Night where Nick Patrick says that he’s asking for a million dollar fine and suspension for Macho Man. Patrick says that there was an announcer that had been making accusations about him, but we don’t see him around anymore, do we? I have NO clue who he’s talking about.

Match #2: Diamond Dallas Page VS Jim Powers w/ Teddy Long

Powers has a great look, but damn…I’m just not seeing anything from him here other than that.

Which headlock takeover from Powers, then to a full nelson from DDP that Powers, ahem, powers out of. DDP keeps trying to get stuff figured out, but Powers keeps getting out of it. We go split screen to a prerecorded promo from DDP to Eddie Guerrero, who he keeps calling Burrito Boy. He tells him to watch the beating that’s going on right now and know that’s what he has coming. Um…so Eddie’s going to get out of EVERYTHING you try to do, Page? He ends it saying that he’s going to put something on Eddie that AJAX won’t take off, before yelling BANG and thrusting his hips. Phrasing, Dallas…

Generic match in the ring with Powers leading until DDP reverses a move into the Diamond Cutter. That move really does come from nowhere!

Winner: Diamond Dallas Page

Back from commercial break and Mike Tenay calls out Macho Man to the entrance ramp. Macho decides not to leave him hanging this week, and walks out with Jason Keller in his Slim Jim racing suit. Keller drives the #57 Slim Jim car. Savage quickly dismisses Tenay and decides to talk to Keller. Savage asks how the nWo car did in that race. Keller says that Kyle Petty hit the wall and never finished the race. Savage asks how Keller did. Did he finish in the top 25? Yup! Top 20? Yup! Top 15? Yes, praise the big Macho Man in the sky! Top 12? Yup! Finished 10th! It’s an interesting little segment, but damn, Keller has NO charisma, haha. Savage says that at Halloween Havoc, Hogan is going to crash and burn just like the nWo car. Liz ambushes Savage and says that they need to talk! Savage says to save it and storms off.

Match #3: High Voltage VS The Faces of Fear w/ Jimmy Hart

As I heard the warning beeps during the entrance…I might have said “Danger! High Voltage!” alongside the announcer on their music. I love High Voltage! They need to be more ring, aware, however, as while they are posing, Meng and the Barbarian jump them from behind and start the match off quickly. Kaos nails Meng with a pair of massive lariats but Meng sells NOTHING. Hell, Kaos sold more than Meng did. Yeah, I love High Voltage…but I love Meng too! And I’m more scared of Meng!

In the entrance way, we see Benoit, Mongo, and Debra doing a bit of scouting on the Faces of Fear.

Big pumphandle slam from Barbarian to Rage but Barbarian pulls Rage up off the mat at the two count. Barbarian slams him into the turnbuckle before tagging out to Meng, who drops Rage with a gigantic sitout powerbomb. Instead of covering, though, he tags out to Barbarian, who gets a jackknife powerbomb of his own. Meng slingshots Rage into a big boot from Barbarian for the three.

Winners: The Faces of Fear

It’s so interesting rewatching this stuff 22 years later. I catch myself rooting for guys that I never did back when I was 14. Meng is a big example. I love watching him, now. He’s so awesome. 14 year old me would have been unhappy about High Voltage losing (well, 36 year old me is still a little hot about it), but seeing Meng and Barbarian destroy these guys was pretty awesome, too.

Commercial break and we’re back for…

Match #4: Mike Wenner VS Glaciar

Mike Wenner just screams “job guy.” Red and black singlet, leather jacket, black mullet. With the blue light during the match, though, he looks like a smaller version of Scotty Steiner…if you squint…and have something in your eyes. That mullet, though…that thing definitely has Steiner aspirations.

Quick takedowns from Glacier. Wenner tries to whip Glacier out of the corner, but Glacier rolls, then rolls over top of Wenner’s back and meets him with a jumping heel kick. That segment was actually pretty cool, but man, this style Glacier wrestles just doesn’t lend itself to very exciting matches from guys who don’t know how to work with him. These matches are slow and super choreographed, in my opinion, instead of quick and snappy like I feel they should be. Quick rolling superkick from Glacier for the win.

Winner: Glacier

Tony calls Glacier “Mr. Excitement!” WHAT?! We clearly watched two different matches!

Glacier ends the match doing his posing and kata in the snow and lights while the hour #2 counter goes down. I swear…he did this for a full minute! Mr. Excitement, indeed!

Pyro goes off as Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the second hour. He says we’ll find out if Jeff Jarrett is a part of the nWo as we go to commercial break.

Match #5: Hugh Morrus VS Jeff Jarrett

Wow, so Jarrett JUST showed up earlier in the night and now he’s getting a match?! Now that’s a quick debut. Bischoff says that he spoke with Jeff Jarrett a few months ago and Jarrett just wanted one shot to prove himself. Bischoff says that from what he understands, Jarrett is taking this opportunity to prove himself to the nWo. Jarrett is wearing his stupid strap outfit with some frills on the legs, which makes it look worse than ever.

Jarrett does his Jackie Fargo strut three times within the first minute of the match. He jumps into the corner and looks at the camera, saying “this is too easy!” He drops Morrus again, walks over his back, and, again, struts. Yeah, it took him less than five minutes to get on my last nerve. According to the commentators, Jarrett is already the newest member of the nWo and they mention it constantly. Morrus clotheslines Jarrett in the corner and Eric goes OFF!

“You hear that? You hear it? You hear it? That’s the fat lady! It’s over, nWo! It’s over!”

From a clothesline in the corner, Eric? C’mon.

Powerslam from Morrus and he goes up top for a big elbow drop, but Jarrett sits up and taps his forehead like he’s a genius for figuring this out. Figure four from Jarrett for the win.

Winner: Jeff Jarrett

Guess what we get to see YET AGAIN? If you said a strut, you are correct. I hate this version of Jeff Jarrett, so I feel I’m in for a very rough run of Nitros going forward.

We go to Tony at the entrance and Jarrett struts into frame. Dear Lord, Jeff…stop it! Tony mentions that Jeff came in to the arena in the black limo, a trademark of the nWo. Jeff says that he has a few things to talk about. He says that Hogan said he created wrestling. If it wasn’t for him, promoters like Verne Gagne wouldn’t have existed. Promoters like Jarrett’s father, Jerry Jarrett, wouldn’t have existed. Jarrett says that Hogan didn’t put a single meal on his father’s table. He didn’t put a single meal on his own table. Hogan doesn’t respect history, but Jarrett is all about history. He says that he feels Sting put it best a few weeks ago and that Hogan and the nWo can stick it. We go to commercial as Bischoff says that he can rest a bit easier now. Yeah, because Jarrett is THE get in this war here…

As we come back, the announcers comment about the upcoming Arn Anderson and Lex Luger match at Halloween Havoc. Bobby says that Arn Anderson would rather cut his tongue out with a pair of scissors than say “I quit.” Really, Bobby? We need to go with a scissors reference?! With Arn Anderson?!

Match #6: Renegade VS “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson w/ Woman

During the entrances, the announcers beg Sting to forgive them and to step up and be their leader. Glad that Larry isn’t with them!

Decent back and forth to start the match off. Arn tries to go for a piledriver but Renegade powers out of it and clotheslines Arn. Arn rolls to the floor to control the pace, luring Renegade out. Arn beats him back into the ring and puts the bots to Renegade as he enters. Quick knee drop from Arn, followed by some punches to the head. Sunset flip attempt from Renegade, but Arn regains his composure and punches him in the head. Arn grounds him with a headlock, but Renegade is eventually able to power out and get a shoulder block. He goes for a second but Arn nails him with a punch to the gut, switching the offense back to him.

Arn turns the offense to the arm of Renegade. Double A decides to switch it up and go for a Vader Bomb, but Renegade gets the knees up.

Mike Tenay starts talking about how everyone figured that Jarrett was in the nWo, and Bobby immediately chimes in with “I didn’t.” It’s so funny how quickly he gets it in.

Renegade gets Arn in the corner and hits Great Muta’s handspring back elbow. He goes for it again, prompting Eric to say it’s the first time he’s ever seen that. Despite it being used by one of the most famous Japanese talents ever. Anyway, Arn has this one scouted, stops it, and drops Renegade with a DDT.

Winner: Arn Anderson

After the match, Arn puts Renegade in the tree of woe and puts the boots to him. This prompts Lex Luger to run out for the save and Arn to hit the floor as we go to commercial.

Match #7: Squire David Taylor w/ Jeeves VS “Total Package” Lex Luger

Taylor decided that Jeeves didn’t get to the ring in a manner of his liking so he decides to European uppercut Jeeves out of his boots on the entrance ramp. We hear that Bobby Eaton has left the Blue Bloods due to the way that Taylor and Lord Steven Regal treat Jeeves.

Eric mentions the fine that Nick Patrick wants levied against Macho Man and even says that he’s not sure why Patrick thinks that he has the power to fine anyone. We go to a quick split-screen promo from Luger where he has two things to say: He wants his Television Championship back from Regal and he’s going to beat Anderson at Havoc. Eric said that he figured Luger’s two things were going to be his left pec and his right pec and he’s out. Not gonna lie, I’d have LOVED to hear that promo from Lex. No words…just flexing and that’s it.

Quick nothing of a match and Luger racks Dave Taylor for the win.

Winner: Lex Luger

As Luger is making his way to the back, Arn jumps him with a chair. As Lex is laying on the ground, Arn makes the Four Horsemen sign and flexes like Luger does. I liked that. Arn is so damn intense.

Eric: Lex will eat his lunch.

Bobby: Yeah, well he’s eating concrete right now.

Match #8: Rick Steiner w/ Scott Steiner VS “The Canadian Crippler” Chris Benoit w/ Steve & Debra McMichael

The announcers let us know that Scott Steiner is here because of the interference last week by Mongo during the match with Benoit and Rick.

The announcers talk about Kevin Greene and the Carolina Panthers a bit during the entrance. I don’t think that issue ever gets resolved, honestly. Nice to see that they’re trying to keep it running, though.

Benoit jumps Rick from behind while he’s jawing with Mongo. Steiner tosses Benoit across the ring with that haphazard powerslam he does then rattle’s the Crippler’s teeth with a massive Steinerline. Eric tells us that Scott’s lower back is injured and he will be having surgery, so that in NJPW during World Tag League, Rick Steiner will be tagging with Great Muta. Now I want to track that down! Steiner ducks a clothesline and sends Benoit down with a release German suplex for two as we go to commercial.

Back from break and Benoit is in control. Hard chops in the corner, but Rick fights out with punches and kicks. Back elbow from Benoit for a two count. Scott grabs Nick Patrick’s hair and Patrick sells it like he’s been shot before standing up and admonishing Scott. Eric figures that will cost Scott a few bucks.

Bischoff freaks out a bit and we go to the back where we see a limo backing in with NWO painted on the license plate. Hogan and Giant get out. Hogan says he’s got some business to take care of and tells Giant to watch his back.

Back to the ring and we get a slam and a quick elbow from Benoit for two. A chop from Benoit is followed by massive punches from Steiner, but Benoit gets another body slam and follows it with a back suplex for two. Eric tells us that they’ve beefed up security so that the nWo won’t take over the booth tonight. Bobby says he’s heard that before. Eric says that WCW will defend themselves and he won’t be manhandled again. Bobby simply says he won’t be there. Flying forearm from Steiner takes both men down. Benoit slams Rick Steiner out of his headgear (literally) before going up top for the flying headbutt. That only gets a two count, causing Benoit to ask if Patrick is kidding him. Benoit goes up top again, coming down with a double axe handle, but Steiner catches him and overhead belly-to-belly suplexes him across the ring. DDT from Steiner for two. Steiner gets a bodyslam of his own and goes up to the top for the top rope bulldog. Again a two count, which draws the ire of Scotty Steiner, saying that Patrick counts too slow. He’s not wrong!

Double down from the two men in the ring and Debra goes for the distraction, just like last week. Scott distracts Mongo, allowing Rick to steal the briefcase and waffle Mongo with it before nailing Benoit with it. Three count and the win for the Dog Faced Gremlin.

Winner: Rick Steiner

Pretty good match, all things considered. I’m already about as tired of Nick Patrick as I am of Jeff Jarrett. Oh Lord…what’s going to happen when they’re in the same match?! My head might explode!

Commercial break for Halloween Havoc and we go to our main event.

Main Event: WCW United States Championship Match: “Macho Man” Randy Savage VS “Nature Boy” Ric Flair (C)

Before Flair even comes out, we cut to the back where Hogan, Dibiase, and the Nasty Boys are walking down the hallway. Hogan says he’s here to confront the Macho Man and asks the Nasty Boys to watch his back. He says if everything works out, he’s got some nWo paperwork there for them.

We cut back to the entranceway and no Flair. Bischoff tells us to cut backstage and we see Vincent, Hall, Nash, Syxx, and The Giant beating the crap out of Ric Flair. Liz and Woman are back there as well, looking distraught. Giant starts intimidating Liz, backing her away from everyone else and out into the arena. Savage comes in with a chair and confronts The Giant. Hogan jumps Savage from behind, though! Hogan drops Savage throat first across the guardrail then starts choking him with a chair. Liz tries to stop Hogan but Hogan grabs her by the hair and leads her to the ring.

“Who do you think you are? I own you!” Hogan yells at Liz. Hogan leads her to the ring where Giant is trying to get Savage into the ring. He’s got Savage over his shoulder and as he’s trying to go up the steps, he slips and drops Savage straight down. Giant throws the steps away and simply tosses Savage into the ring. He lifts Savage up for the choke slam, but Hogan tells him to put him down. Hogan sucker punches Savage and then starts putting the fists to his head on the ground while Giant holds Liz hostage. Every few moves, Hogan yells at Liz that he owns her and makes her watch as Hogan drops the leg to the back of Randy’s head. Fans start pelting the ring with trash as Hogan drops a second leg on Savage and pulls out a can of spray paint and a Slim Jim. He asks why Savage doesn’t snap into a Slim Jim as he drops a third leg. Hogan uses the spray paint to paint a body outline around the prone body of Savage in the middle of the ring. Giant yells “rest in peace!” as a cup of something smashes against his head. Hogan drops leg 4, spray paints nWo Rules on the mat, drops leg 5, then paints nWo on Savage’s back as the Outsiders come out from the back.

Hogan says that with the power vested in him from Hollywood and the brotherhood of the nWo, he declares this consummation of Randy Savage and Ms. Elizabeth null and void because he owns Liz’s body, her soul, everything. He says they should destroy the announce booth, just like they did the Macho Man. Everyone scatters except for Bischoff, who says he’s not leaving. He changes his mind, though, when an nWo monster truck rides out of the back with Syxx hanging out of it. We end the show with an empty announce booth and the nWo monster truck.

I actually really liked the ending to this one. The nWo destroying everyone and just being terrible people was great heel heat. The nWo often comes across as cool heels, so I like this when it really paints them as terrible people for doing what they’re doing. Hogan is totally despicable right here, and even the cool guys like Hall and Nash look terrible for being complicit everything that happens in the last ten minutes of the show. THIS makes me want to see them get their asses kicked! THIS is what needs to happen with them every time they show up! I shouldn’t cheer them. I should want to see WCW rally and destroy them. Right now, I want nothing more than for Savage to kill Hulk Hogan in the ring at Halloween Havoc…if he waits that long! Great ending!

Thankfully it ended on a good note, because the matches were definitely nothing special. With the exception of the Benoit VS Steiner match, they were all pretty subpar, but that ending…it just left me on a pretty emotional level and I want vengeance! It definitely makes up for having to watch no less than six Jeff Jarrett struts!

With that, I’ll see you next week!

-Shane

Ratings Breakdown

• WWF Raw Ratings –2.1
• WCW Nitro Ratings – 3.5
• (Raw – 17, Nitro – 32) (Tie Weeks – 2)
• (Unopposed weeks – 7)
• WWF’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 6
• WCW’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 15

—–—

WWF Raw results from this week

• Marc Mero defeated Fake Diesel via disqualification (8:15)
• The Smoking Gunns (Bart and Billy) defeated The New Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Leif Cassidy)
• The Sultan defeated Aldo Montoya
• Psycho Sid defeated Goldust (w/ Marlena)

Kick Out at Nitro! – 9/30/1996 – “What’s your deal, Liz?”

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another installment of my personal journey through WCW history: Kick Out at Nitro.  Yes, it’s been a while since my last entry…ten months, to be exact, and I am definitely sorry about that! However, let’s try this again, picking up where we left off, and heading towards the future!

WCW Monday Nitro comes to us live tonight from Cleveland, OH.  I’ve been listening to a lot of Tony Schiavone’s What Happened When podcast recently, so it’s interesting hearing Tony in his full glory and not calling people a “slapdick.”  Tony and Larry Zbyszko open the show by going over the previous week’s takeover of Nitro by the nWo. Tony recaps the unveiling of the nWo race car and both men seem very incredulous about Kyle Petty driving the car.  Larry even says that Kyle has too much class to couple with the “New World Odor.” Still trying to get that line over, huh, Larry?

Tony kicks us over to Eric Bischoff, who goes over the history of WCW, saying it goes back to 1905 (it doesn’t), and that the nWo coming in and trying to stop WCW isn’t going to fly because WCW has done too much and come too far, and it’s going to stop.  Eric says that the single worst thing he’s ever done is bring Hulk Hogan into WCW. It’s a very heartfelt and to the point speech and it does a really good job at pushing the idea that last week was a fluke and WCW is really going to fight back. With that, we go to…

Match #1: El Technico & Juventud Guerrera VS  Public Enemy (WCW World Tag Team Campions)

El Technico?  Really? The Babyface?  Larry asks Tony if he knows what “El Technico” means and Tony tells us it means “technical wrestler” or “fan favorite.”  So, yes, literally “The Babyface.” He’s in a super generic red full body outfit and a half red, half green generic lucha mask.  I’m guaranteeing the guy under that hood isn’t of Latin descent. A quick look at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from 10/5 shows that I would have won that bet as it’s actually Billy Kidman under the hood.  Why not just have him come out as Billy Kidman? He’s already debuted by this time.

Guerrera and Rocco Rock start the match off with Juvi getting some quick offense and a flying headscissors before getting sent to the floor and into the guardrail hard by Rock.  Quick whip into the corner and Juventud tags out to El Technico, who immediately gets double teamed and covered for a one-count. Johnny Grunge throws Guerrera out of the ring while Rocco Rock and Techinco simply stand there on the opposite side of the ring doing nothing.  Juventud gets sent out of the ring so that the Public Enemy can gang up on El Technico. They twist his mask so that he can’t see, clothesline him, then do an assisted Drive By flipping senton from the middle of the ropes for the win.

Winners: Public Enemy

The Champs put Kidman through a table with the same move we just saw and then escape through the crowd.

We get a quick promo from Dean Malenko where he says that he’s going to use Alex Wright as a stepping stone to what is rightfully his.  We then get a commercial for WCW wear with Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Back from commercial with Mike Tenay backstage with Horsemen Chris Benoit and Mongo McMichael and his wife Debra.  Tenay says that Mongo isn’t on the sheet for competition tonight, so he asks him why he’s here. Mongo says he saw what happened to Savage last week and that “one on sixty” isn’t cool with him.  He says tonight if you see one Horseman, you’ll see more. That’s kind of how it’s always been, Mongo…not really a new thing. Debra adds nothing to the previous statements as she says that they’re there to represent one of the Horsemen (um…which one, Debra?).  Benoit cuts a promo on Rick Steiner, who he’ll wrestle in hour number two, then closes it out by saying the Horsemen are elite, the Horsemen are perennial. After that, Tenay kicks us to a commercial…

…that was paid for by the New World Order by way of WCW, because they have to foot the bill now.  The nWo are hanging out in a hotel room. Hogan’s son Nick is there with them and Hollywood lets us know that Nick is allowed to watch the nWo every Monday from 8-10.  Nash calls “Sting” the best impersonator in wrestling. Nash asks why we never see Bill Marriott and Ross Perot in the same place, then says he saw Mongo on MTV and that he can tell Debra wants him.  Syxx orders room service as the commercial comes to an end. I really like how they’ve added a “not anymooore” to the end of the “paid for by the New World Order” thing since WCW, in kayfabe, has to pay for the ad time due to losing War Games.  It’s just a nice little jab from the nWo to WCW.

Back from commercial break and on to…

Match #2: “The Iceman” Dean Malenko VS “Das Wunderkind” Alex Wright

Dean comes out holding Rey Mysterio, Jr’s mask that he stole from him on an episode of WCW Saturday Night.  Alex Wright comes out in the neon greenest trunks and pads known to man. Dude really did enjoy his bright colors!

Some great mat wrestling and hold trading between the two men.  It’s pretty even until Dean drops Wright with a back suplex and takes over as we go to commercial.  As we come back, Tony tells us that Malenko has been controlling the match during the break as well.  Malenko sends Wright to the floor and then into the guardrail for good measure. Wright looks beat up as he comes back into the ring with an attempted sunset flip that Dean simply punches his way out of.  While Alex was on the floor, Dean went over to Rey’s mask in the corner and touched it, just to remind him of his purpose in life according to Tony.

Tony says that all of WCW is here except for Sting.  He says that they’ve taken to calling him the “Lone Wolf” and that he’s not WCW, he’s not nWo…he’s an island unto himself.  Larry again calls this a temper tantrum from Sting and says it’s a terrible time for it. Um, are you a babyface or a heel here, Larry?

Malenko misses a crossbody block from the top rope, allowing Wright to roll him up for the three count.

Winner: Alex Wright

We go to a replay of WCW Saturday Night where Macho Man defeated Big Bubba and then went berserk, constantly elbowing Bubba and beating up referees Mark Curtis and Nick Patrick (which the crowd loved).  While this was happening, Ms. Elizabeth watched on from the entry way with her normal concerned/confused look. Back in real time, Mike Tenay is at the Nitro entrance and announces an interview with Savage.  Savage’s music plays but he never comes out. The announce team is concerned and confused…guess whatever Elizabeth has is catching…and we go to commercial.

Oddly enough, a commercial for Halloween Havoc featuring Macho Man.  Timing, guys…

 

Savage always seems like he’s having a blast in these commercials.  In this one, he’s trying on Frankenstein masks and then putting on a werewolf mask and saying he’s Macho Wolfman Randy Savage!  Savage shows off the number 57 Slim Jim racecar done in Halloween Havoc colors. I have both of the Racing Champions 1:64th scale versions of this and the nWo car featured on this episode.  I’ve had them since 1996 and they’re some of my favorite parts of my collection, so it’s cool to see the actual cars on the screen. Ric Flair shows up in the commercial saying he’s going to win the contest that Slim Jim is running for himself, which prompts some banter between the two.  Pretty funny commercial, actually.

Match #3: Jim Powers w/ Theodore Long VS Eddie Guerrero

Nick Patrick is the referee for this match and is sporting a neck brace from Savage’s beat down on Saturday Night.

Quick shot of Matt Ghaffari, the silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling from the ‘96 Olympics in Atlanta, sitting front row.

Powers starts us out with a side headlock and a shoulder tackle, but Eddie is able to fire up with a bodyslam and his senton into the ring from the apron.  Vertical suplex attempt by Eddie is blocked and Powers starts peppering Eddie’s head with closed fists, to the admonishment of Nick Patrick. Eddie tackles Powers and rains down fists of his own in a quick showing of offense, but it’s shut down with an overhead suplex out of the corner by Powers.  Clothesline for two…although they’re the slowest two counts I’ve ever seen. Dear Lord, I’ve said it numerous times, but Nick Patrick is the worst ref ever.

Shot of the crowd where fans are parading around with nWo signs.

Tony tells us that we’re going to get Eddie Guerrero VS Diamond Dallas Page for the Battle Bowl Ring again at Halloween Havoc.  Eddie’s never even got to wear the ring after winning it at the Clash of the Champions in August.

Powers controls the match for a good while, bring it to a crawl with a reverse chin lock while Teddy Long jaws with Patrick.  Man, T-Lo looks so different now! He’s probably lost close to 100 pounds from this period in 1996. Booking tag matches must be a hell of a diet, folks!

Eddie goes up top but Powers follows him up and brings Eddie crashing down with a superplex for two.  Larry keeps saying that Powers isn’t cradling Eddie correctly, which is why the pins aren’t sticking, but it’s probably because Nick Patrick is the slowest ref ever and any other ref would have counted the three.  Eddie hits a German Suplex and counts to three when Powers clearly kicks out at 2.9. Patrick calls for the bell and says it’s over.

Winner: Eddie Guerrero

Teddy hits the ring and gives Patrick a piece of his mind while Powers looks on.  Eddie looks lost, so he just leaves. Teddy asks if Patrick needs to go back to referee school and Nick says that if Teddy wants to criticize his calls, he can go to the back and get the blue ref shirt and do it himself.  Um…Nick…Teddy started out as a referee in this company…

Anyway, Teddy raises Jim Powers’s hand and we go to another nWo commercial.

The nWo are watching Nitro and start cheering when they see themselves on the screen.  The Nasty Boys come into the hotel room to fanfair from the only guy that actually enjoys being around them…Hollywood Hogan.  Syxx opens the door for the room service and then everyone starts talking over each other. Jerry Saggs says that this is more than WCW ever did for them while Knobbs keeps yelling “It’s time to party!”  Saggs tells us that he has something they all need to see. He jumps up on the table and says he’s going to do an Eric Bischoff impersonation…but he just bends over and grabs his buttcheeks and says “oh no, the nWo is gonna get me!”  Damn…Ace Ventura was two years ago, Jerry…and NO ONE wanted to see that. Thankfully we fade out to the nWo bumper and a commercial break.

Rundown for this week’s WCW Saturday Night where we’ll see the Rock & Roll Express vs Mongo and Benoit, among other matches.  Tony kicks us back stage with Mike Tenay, Arn Anderson, Woman, and Ms. Elizabeth. Arn says that they all sat down after Fall Brawl and talked about Liz having a weakness, but that they all had a job to do and had to pull together.  They get back from Japan and Liz is playing spectator. They all need to pull together and win as a cohesive unit. Woman asks what Liz was even doing, saying she wasn’t using her head. Liz says it’s complicated. Arn tells her that if she’s in, she’s all the way in…there’s no middle ground.

During that entire thing, Mike Tenay had the dumbest look on his face.  He would just stare at the camera while Arn was talking and try to look serious, but it was just a weird look for him.

Match #4: Hugh Morrus VS Brad Armstrong

Tony and Larry speculate whether the nWo commercial means that the Nasty Boys are full fledged members of the nWo.  Sadly, Larry now has Tony using the “New World Odor” tagline and my eyes can’t roll hard enough.

Yet again the Hour #2 fireworks go off during a match.  Commentary teams switch over to Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.  Bischoff says that he’s going to disagree with Tony and Larry and says that that the Nasty Boys are simply being conned and that if they believe they’re in the nWo, then they’re idiots.

Brad Armstrong may be really good in the ring, but he’s basically WCW Create A Wrestler #35.  He goes for a side Russian leg sweep but Morrus grabs the rope, causing Armstrong to crash to the mat.  Two moonsaults later and Morrus is the winner.

Winner: Hugh Morrus

We cut quickly to Gorilla Position where Double A and Woman are still giving Liz the business about Savage as we go to commercial.  Back from commercial, Eric says he wants to figure out this Savage stuff and wants to figure out which hotel the nWo are holed up in, so he stands up and leaves the broadcast booth, telling Tenay and Heenan  to figure it out and tells Tony Schiavone if he’s still around, he’s welcome to take his place.

Match #5: “Lionheart” Chris Jericho VS “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson w/ Woman

Looks like Liz made her choice as she does not come to the ring with Double A and Woman.

Fireman’s carry from Arn gets quickly reveresed into a head scissors, but both men get back to a standing base long enough for Jericho to get a drop toehold to Arn.  It’s interesting to see Jericho leading the match but it being at a more methodical pace that closer fits Anderson. Both men trade top wristlocks and Jericho’s meanstreak shows a bit as he hammers Double A with two kicks to the chest, driving him to the mat.  Arn nails Jericho with a pair of shoulder blocks in the ropes to get out of the hold as we cut backstage to see Liz watching the match on a monitor. Jericho dives off of the ring apron with a flying shoulderblock to Double A, but the momentum is stopped when Woman gets in Jericho’s way long enough for Arn to blindside him.

Backstage, Liz’s face shows how upset she is, and she gets up from her place at the monitor and leaves.  If you ask me, this whole thing with Liz is showing how little she fits in with the Horsemen. She’s stuck out like a sore thumb ever since she joined and I’m really glad to start seeing this look like it’s going to end.  Jericho gains the momentum back as Bobby says that you can tell that Arn has something on his mind because he hasn’t dominated the match like he normally does. Jericho goes for the Lionsault but Arn moves. Jericho is doubled over from the landing, which allows Arn to nail a snap DDT for the win.

Winner: Arn Anderson

Commercial for the nWo t-shirt.  Still the best design in wrestling history.

Backstage, Liz is leaving the arena with her bags and a rolled up piece of paper that Tony speculates is a contract or something like that.  Heenan simply sais “or directions.” I like how that works because it’s a funny quip, but also casts speculation on her needing directions to the nWo hotel room.  Heenan is so good at little stuff like that.

Match #6: M. Wallstreet VS “The Total Package” Lex Luger

Wallstreet comes to the ring in a full suit, reminiscent of the Million Dollar Man.  That’s got to be aggravating to have to take off before wrestling. Lex comes out with a little less fire than he normally does, but, then again, it’s an M. Wallstreet match…

The announcers speculate about Sting during the beginning of this match.  According to Tony, Lex has said that he feels that Sting just “needs some time” right now.  I like the fact that this group is speculating and talking up the angle without adding in the drama like Larry does.  The whole “temper tantrum” thing that Larry adds to the comments about Sting just upset me for some reason.

The announcers bring up Luger losing the Television Championship to Lord Steven Regal on Saturday Night back in August due to nWo interference.

The match is a pretty normal, paint by the numbers match.  Wallstreet dominates the majority of the match at a pretty slow pace until the final stretch where Luger fires up, nailing the flying forearm for a two count.  The announcers mention that the Horsemen all blame Luger for the loss at Fall Brawl, so he’ll be wrestling Arn Anderson at Halloween Havoc. Luger gets the Torture Rack on Wallstreet for the victory.

Winner: Lex Luger

    We come back from commercial break where Tony says it takes a big man to admit a mistake and it takes a big company to do the same.  He says that Eric said his biggest mistake was hiring Hulk Hogan. Tony says that WCW’s biggest mistake was not trusting Sting. They want to make Sting a peace offering…so they unveil Elliott Sadler’s new WCW race car in a Sting paint scheme.  I LOVED this paint scheme. This is another one that I have the Racing Champions version of and have since it came out. I actually really want to add the 1:24 versions to the collection, too.

Match #7: The Faces of Fear w/ Jimmy Hart VS The Rock & Roll Express

It’s still really odd seeing the R&R Express in 1996.  They’ve been getting some steady play over the last few months, too!  It’s also interesting watching Meng again as I’ve been watching his sons in the G1 Climax from NJPW for the last few weeks.

Morton starts off quick, ducking punches from Meng and slipping in and out of his holds.  Morton applies a sleeper to Meng and Bobby quips “Meng hasn’t been to sleep since ‘62!” Meng shrugs Morton off, but Morton won’t be denied and tries it again.  Heenan says that someone needs to tell Morton that “Meng is not a ride, he’s a wrestler!” Tag out to Barbarian, who catches Morton’s crossbody attempt, but in comes Gibson to dropkick that into a pin.  Barbarian tosses him off, but Morton and Gibson take turns quickly going for the pin. This is a good way to tire the man out, but why Mark Curtis is counting the pins for the illegal man is beyond me.

Commercial break and we come back to a sunset flip to Barbarian from Morton for a two count.  Quick roll up, also for a two count. Tag out to Meng who drives Morton’s head a foot into the mat with a beautiful jumping piledriver!  Double-team combo of a reverse atomic drop and a boot to the face as Barbarian is tagged in. Barbarian drops Morton with a massive powerbomb that, somehow, only gets two.  Barbarian follows it up with a hell of a backbreaker that bounces Morton off of his knee, but again for two.

Tony lets us know that Benoit and McMichael will be wrestling the Faces of Fear at Halloween Havoc.  That’s the match that I became a fan of Benoit in, so I’m excited to see it again!

Bobby:    “You know what you call Hulk Hogan buried up to his neck in sand?

Tony: “What?”

Bobby: “Not enough sand.”

Double diving headbutts from the Faces of Fear only gets a two count due to Gibson breaking it up.  Morton gets the hot tag to Gibson, who comes in a house of fire with a knee lift, dropkick, and then pummeling Barbarian in the corner with punches.  Double dropkick from the Express on Meng, but Gibson messes up by going after Jimmy Hart. Barbarian nails Gibson in the back of the head with the Maifa Kick for the win.

Winners: The Faces of Fear

After the match, the Faces of Fear start pummeling the Rock & Roll Express, which brings out Public Enemy for some reason.  The Faces of Fear take down Johnny Grunge and splash his knee, taking him out as we go to commercial break.

nWo commercial break featuring Kyle Petty.  Petty runs down the WCW race car as Hollywood cuts a promo on Halloween Havoc and Randy Savage.  THIS is how I remember the Kyle Petty reveal, so I guess I wasn’t paying much attention the week before back in 1996.

Fun fact:  Kyle Petty came in 34th in the All Pro Bumper to Bumper 300 race the Saturday after this.  Jason Keller in the Slim Jim/Halloween Havoc car from earlier came in 10th. Elliott Sadler in the new Sting car…didn’t qualify.  No wonder Sting didn’t return their damn calls if THIS is how they apologize to him!

Match #8: “The Crippler” Chris Benoit w/ Steve & Debra McMichael VS Rick Steiner

The match starts with Nick Patrick talking into the camera, pointing at his neck brace, saying that he comes to work hurt when no one else does.  He’s there after Savage hurt him, but Savage hasn’t heard the last of this because Patrick’s the law in WCW.

We go to commercial break at the beginning of the match.  C’mon, WCW! Get this stuff figured out! Quick commercial for Halloween Havoc and we’re back to the bell ringing and Benoit and Steiner starting off strong.  Steiner ducks a clothesline and LEVELS Benoit with a huge release German suplex. Benoit heads to the floor to shake the cobwebs loose. Steiner follows but Benoit is able to get the jump on him by getting into the ring first.  Good sequence where Benoit snaps off a suplex to Steiner, but Steiner comes back with a big Steinerline and that catching powerslam he does that always looks so nasty.

Debra distracts Patrick while Rick takes Benoit up top for a top rope belly-to-belly suplex, which allows Mongo to nail Steiner from behind with the Haliburton breifcase.  Benoit falls on top of Steiner and Patrick counts the three as the Horsemen mug for the camera to send us off the air.

Winner: Chris Benoit

The show ends back in the hotel room…with Liz sitting between Hogan and the Giant!  Giant is saying that he has NO acting experience but he’s already done two movies…including one with Arnold Schwarzenegger.    You can tell they’re trying to bring Liz into the nWo. Hogan says he’s got a three movie deal for her if she’s ready to join. Liz says that Hogan doesn’t understand, that stuff has changed since the deal was made.  A big present shows up and Liz takes that opportunity to leave the hotel room. The camera follows her out into the hallway where a fired up Randy Savage runs into the shot, yelling at Liz, asking her if she’s “ribbing” and trying to set him up.  He runs back and forth to her and the hotel room, yelling “son of a bitch” and asking Liz if that deal is what he thinks it is. With that, we go off the air!

That last part was pretty damn intense!  I was hoping Savage would storm the room before it was over, or that the nWo would come out and jump him because he’s not exactly making his presence a secret with his yelling, but no, just some weird yelling at Liz and we’re off the air.  It really did help setup Savage as a madman, though, but it kind of raises more questions…

Was Savage at the hotel this whole time?  Did he find out about Liz being there and THEN go?  If he WAS backstage, why did he leave Mike Tenay at the alter?  So many questions.

Overall not a bad show.  It was pretty enjoyable, especially with the antics of the nWo running through it.  It was nice not getting them in the main show, but their presence still being something you felt through the entire show due to the announcers talking it up and Bischoff storming off.  They did a really good job of setting up some stuff at Halloween Havoc, which is cool because that Main Event has been in the works since January at the Clash of Champions. I like how it went from just being a normal Hogan VS Savage match when it was setup to now being this blood feud with the nWo stuff involved.  So good.

Well, that’s it for this week, ladies and gentlemen.  Join us back here at KickOutat2.com and GimmicksInc.com for more next week!

-Shane

Ratings Breakdown

WWF Raw Ratings –2.3
WCW Nitro Ratings – 3.3
(Raw – 17, Nitro – 31) (Tie Weeks – 2)
(Unopposed weeks – 7)
WWF’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 6
WCW’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 14

—–—
WWF Raw results from this week

Steve Austin defeated Jake Roberts (10:00)
The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) (w/ Hillbilly Jim) defeated The Grimm Twins (Jared Grimm & Jason Grimm) (4:24)
Savio Vega defeated Razor Ramon by DQ (9:30)
Jim Cornette & Vader defeated Jose Lothario & Shawn Michaels (9:30)

Kick Out At Nitro! – 9/23/1996 – “While WCW’s away, the nWo will play!”

Hello, wrestling fans!  It’s been way too long, but we’re back with another edition of Kick Out at Nitro, brought to you by GimmicksInc.com!  When last we left the world of Monday Nitro, WCW had lost War Games and the nWo’s ranks had been bolstered by their newest member, Sean Waltman.  WCW has also let it slip that all of it’s main talent, aside from “Macho Man” Randy Savage, will be in Japan, so the nWo has threatened to wreak a little havoc where the big boys play.

I’m still shocked that red and yellow Hulk Hogan is all over the introduction package for Nitro.  The guy turned on your company two months ago!  Let’s do some editing, people!

Larry Zbyszko and Tony Schiavone kick us off from the Benjamin-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama.  Tony shows us an ad that was run in that day’s edition of the USA Today that shows the Monday Nitro logo with the nWo paint over it, saying “while WCW’s away, the nWo will play.”  Larry calls the nWo parasites and Tony lets us know that everyone but Macho Man is gone tonight before showing us him slamming The Giant at Fall Brawl and reminding us that Savage will be taking on Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc.  We cut to a recording from earlier of the nWo flyers being handed out to the fans, but thankfully some of the WCW fans are actually tearing them up tonight.

 

Match #1: Kevin Sullivan and Konnan w/ Jimmy Hart and Big Bubba VS Brad Armstrong and Juventud Guerrera

 

The babyfaces get the jobber entrance as Konnan and Juventud start off with Konnan hitting a hell of a German suplex and an arm drag, going for a pin but getting a two count.  Juventud sends Konnan to the ringside area with a headscissors takeover and then hits a crossbody dive over the top rope to the floor.  Rolling Konnan back into the ring, Juventud comes back into the ring with a flipping leg drop, but Konnan is able to catch Guerrera with a cradle DDT and just spikes him.  Konnan tries to tag out to Sullivan but Sullivan refuses the tag, telling Konnan to keep going.  Konnan again drops Guerrera with a fisherman’s buster and again Sullivan refuses the tag.  Guerrera tags out to Brad Armstrong, who is a house of fire when he comes in, but a dropkick to the knee and a powerbomb sends Armstrong down.  Tag to Sullivan, finally, who comes in and nails a double stomp for the win.

 

Winners: Kevin Sullivan and Konnan

 

Konnan and Sullivan have a few words, then out of nowhere, Big Bubba blindsides Konnan.  Sullivan and Bubba put the boots to Konnan for a few moments while Jimmy Hart tells us that this is Konnan’s initiation into the Dungeon of Doom.  They tell Konnan this, who has a few words with Sullivan, telling him that he’s Dungeon of Doom, and they all celebrate.  I liked this.  It came off awkwardly at the beginning, but Konnan getting into it and celebrating with Big Bubba actually played out nicely.

During the finish of this match as well as right at the end, we see the fans with nWo picket signs walking through the arena.  I like this part of the nWo angle, honestly.  Really does help sell this “outside” organization as being legit.

Commercial Break and we’re back to a replay of the end of last week where the nWo discusses Savage being out of the building.  Of course, you can relive that episode right here.  We go backstage with Mike Tenay and Randy Savage.  Savage says that they can cheap shot him every night and every day and it’s not going to change anything come Halloween Havoc.  He says he’s WCW’s last hope.  He says that everyone was booked in Japan tonight but he pulled himself out of that booking to stay at Nitro.  He doesn’t know if he’ll get beat up or if he’ll beat up the entire nWo tonight.  He then goes off on this very weird moment with Liz saying that the only thing they have in common is that they may be goldfish swimming in the same pond in a hundred thousand lifetimes from now.  He then none of this makes sense, and he’s 100% correct on that.  He says the one thing that does make sense is that Halloween Havoc is scary, but he’s not scared!  Um, I thought you said this would make sense, Savage?!   He says that he takes the responsibility to wipe Hogan out!

 

Match #2: “Mean” Mike Enos VS “Lionheart” Chris Jericho

 

As the match starts, Tony speculates that Ms. Elizabeth may have rediscovered her feelings for Randy, if only for one night.  Larry says that Savage needs to stay away from ideas like that.  Enos gets Jericho to shake hands, but then slaps the taste out of Jericho’s mouth.  Irish whip and Enos goes for a cross body that Jericho just sidesteps, leaving Enos to land flat on his face before getting up and eating a spinning heel kick.  Jericho returns the favor from earlier and slaps Enos.  Tony lets us know that the Outsiders will be taking on Harlem Heat for the WCW World Tag Team Championship at Halloween Havoc as well.

Enos takes control of the match, nailing a good looking belly to belly suplex on Jericho out of the corner and sending him to the floor.  Enos comes off of the ring apron with a diving clothesline and then chokes Jericho out with a cable at ringside before dropping him throat first on the guardrail and slamming his face into the ringpost.  Enos stands up the steel steps and vertical suplexes Jericho onto them!  That’s a really cool spot, honestly!  Back in the ring, Enos punishes Jericho with a few headbutts before locking on a bearhug.  Jericho gets the crowd behind him and boxes Enos’s ears, breaking out of the bearhug, but eats a big powerslam, so it’s for naught.  Two count on the powerslam and Enos lifts Jericho’s legs up like he’s going for a Boston Crab, but he takes forever to take the long step over, so it just looks like he’s forgotten what he’s trying to do.  Larry mentions that the way he’s applying it isn’t very effective, and Enos just drops the hold.

Enos lifts Jericho up for a Canadian backbreaker, but Jericho is able to slip out of it with a sunset flip.  Jericho fires off two jumping kicks and then comes off the ropes with a hell of a clothesline.  Butterfly suplex from Jericho followed with a missile dropkick and we’re on a Jericho offensive.  Jericho goes for a top rope Frankensteiner, but Enos brings him down with a powerbomb!  Enos smirks, knowing he’s got it won, and goes for a cover and only two.  Enos goes for a powerslam on Jericho, but Jericho awkwardly rolls through it into a pin and the win.

 

Winner: Chris Jericho

 

We’re back from Commerical Break as we hear Goldberg’s music!  This is it, ladies and gentlemen…the Man!…wait…no, it’s Pat Tanaka.  Oh.

 

Match #3: Pat Tanaka VS Glacier

 

Not-Sub Zero comes out to his blue light, snowing, laser show.  I don’t understand how anyone can see anything during his entrance.  There’s a spotlight in the center of the ring, but it’s just projecting a spinning circle of light AROUND Glacier.  The arena lights stay dark except for the blue light over the ring.

Tanaka goes for a karate chop and Glacier floors him with a palm strike.  Takana follows with a kick attempt but Glacier does his best Cobra Kai imitation and sweeps the leg.  Irish whip and Glacier goes for a Frankensteiner, but Tanaka powerbombs the crap out of the man in blue.  Two count and Glacier follows up with a spin kick to Tanaka’s head for the win.

 

Winner: Glacier

 

Larry says that he needs to go talk to Glacier before the New World Order has a chance.  You know what, Larry?  I think that you’ve got a bit of time, so don’t rush over or anything.

We get a rundown for Saturday Night that will be Brad Armstrong VS Dean Malenko, Harlem Heat VS Public Enemy, and Randy Savage if he is able to survive tonight.  We cut to a shot of Matt Ghaffari in the crowd.  Ghaffari was silver medalist in the ‘96 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling.  Larry calls him a loser since he didn’t win the gold.  Tony asks Larry how many Olympic medals he has, which is zero, but Larry says it’s because they wouldn’t let him compete since he was “too mean.”

 

Match #4: WCW World Tag Team Championship: Public Enemy VS Harlem Heat w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Robert Parker (WCW World Tag Team Champions)

 

Man, Harlem Heat are just such cool looking guys.  Their attire, their attitude…they’re pretty much the total package here.  I miss having them in the WWE video games!  They were in WWE 2K16 as DLC and that was amazing, but they’ve been missing for the last two years, sadly.

The match starts and it’s Harlem Heat coming out strong, sending Grunge out of the ring and hitting a double big boot on Rocco Rock.  Grunge comes back in hard, though, with a flying double clothesline, giving the Public Enemy the control again.  Booker gets a thumb to the eye after a pin, though, and is able to tag out to Stevie Ray.  It’s back and forth until we have to go to commercial break.  As we come back, Tony tells us that during the break it’s been all Harlem Heat.  Booker goes for a Harlem Side Kick, though, but Rocco Rock ducks and Booker crotches himself on the top rope as Rock tags out to Grunge.  Grunge backs Booker T into the corner and gets 10 punches before dancing a bit and drawing the ire of the crow.  Booker comes off of the Irish whip with a kick and a hard clothesline and tags out to Stevie Ray, who comes in with a HUGE leg drop.  Larry says that he has faith in Harlem Heat defending the belts, but now in Savage as “WCW’s last hope.”

We get some arguments and shenanigans on the floor that has referee Nick Patrick distracted.  Larry tells us that they shouldn’t waste time arguing with the referee; just go behind his back!  Stevie has Grunge in the Heat’s corner in a rear chinlock.  Stevie tags out to Booker and Booker comes in with a massive Harlem Side Kick, getting all of it this time.  He goes for the pin but gets two as Rocco Rock breaks it up.

We cut to a split screen backstage and the nWo has arrived in two limos.  Hall, Nash, and Syxx are all in their wrestling gear, as is Hogan and “Sting.”

Grunge tries to take down Booker with a sunset flip but Booker punches his way out of it.  Booker goes for a backdrop off of the Irish whip, but Grunge kicks him and hits a spinning neckbreaker and tags out to Rocco Rock.  Rock comes in with “fists of fire” according to Tony, but Harlem Heat both hit him with a double headbutt.  Booker goes up for the Harlem Hangover, but Rocco Rock moves at the last second.  There’s an awkward moment where Rock gets shoved back into the ring and is pinning Booker but his foot is clearly on the rope, so Patrick stops the count.  Booker rolls Rock up for a small package for the win.  Buuuuuuuut, Rock rolled the small package at the last second and gets the pin for his team.

 

Winners: Public Enemy (new WCW World Tag Team Champions)

 

Booker goes to grab the championship belt from Nick Patrick, but Patrick waves him off and awards the belt to Public Enemy.  The crowd goes crazy, which is odd since it didn’t seem like anyone cared at all during the match.  Public Enemy celebrates their first World Championship win in the crowd as we go to commercial.  Back from commercial break and we’re within 10 seconds of the countdown for Hour #2 as Tony kicks us to Eric Bischoff.

 

Match #5: Greg “The Hammer” Valentine VS “Macho Man” Randy Savage

 

    Bischoff reminds us that the nWo is here in full force and even teases the idea that there might be another man here as a surprise.

Valentine decides that he’s going to try to attack Savage during his entrance, but Savage is able to get the drop on Valentine with a kick to the gut and starts the match off strong.  The Hammer is able to quickly turn the momentum towards his side, though, and takes over the offense, beating down Savage and sending him to the outside.  If there’s one critique I have with Savage at this point, it’s that he takes too much of a beating before he really gets going.

Savage slides back into the ring and is immediately sent back outside where he keeps taking a beating from Valentine.  Savage fires back up and grabs a steel chair from ringside and proceeds to waffle Valentine with it.  Valentine escapes into the ring but Savage follows with the chair and comes off of the top rope with a chairshot to Valentine’s head.  Savage grabs referee Mark Curtis and begins to throw him out of the ring but out come the nWo in force.  They beat him down and Hall nails him with an Outsider’s Edge and Nash follows it with a jackknife powerbomb.  Nash looks into the camera and says “It looks like we’re taking over tonight.”

 

Winner: Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (via DQ)

 

Giant grabs a mic and announces “the man and the myth, the man to be with, the all-time greatest professional wrestler in the world…the man who made professional wrestling what it is today, the man who knows no limits, the financial backbone of the nWo, the largest arms in the world, the one, the only, “Hollywood” Hogan!”  It’s weird hearing Giant fawn over a man he was just feuding with a month ago.  Honestly, it’s still weird seeing The Giant in this form.  He’s dressed up in nice clothes where everyone else is in their wrestling gear.

Hogan mugs for the camera and says “because anything less would be TOO civilized.”  The nWo holds Savage so Hogan can get a cheap shot in and then drops a big leg on him, and then another.  Nash starts whipping Savage with a Slim Jim, much to Hogan’s delight.

Hogan says he’s used to being in Hollywood, but the bright lights shining off of Savage’s head is just too much, so he’s going to fix that.  Bischoff makes a nice crack where he asks what Hogan thinks he sees when he looks in the mirror.  Hogan breaks out his “anything else…” crack again but flubs it this time, saying “uncivilized” instead of his “too civilized” line from earlier.  He uses a can of spray paint to paint the bald patch in Savage’s hair while the rest of the nWo makes a beeline for the announce booth.  Mike and Bobby run away but Bischoff isn’t able to make it away.  Nash grabs him and starts to pummel him but Hall stops him and the Outsiders join Eric at the announce booth.

Hall says they’re going to bring out their newest member: Ted Dibiase’s head of security.  They all start calling for Vincent and Vince, leaving Bischoff to ask incredulously about “Vince” coming out.  Out walks Virgil, Dibiase’s “manservent” from his WWF Million Dollar Man days.  They all shake hands and hug.  Nash says that taking over wrestling wasn’t too hard, they’ve got Hogan, they can take over basketball because they’ve got “Shaq,” as The Giant mimes shooting hoops.  Nash says that his brother-in-law told him that there are only two things worth watching…Alabama Football and NASCAR racing.  It’s a bit of a nonsequitur but it actually will pay off later down the line.  Bischoff sends us to commercial break as Vincent violently slams him down into the chair.

Back from commercial break and they bring up NASCAR again.  Nash says he thinks they can do something about that and bring out an nWo painted race car.  Nash says that they’ve got the best driver…he’s a guy that got in trouble for some fisticuffs, he’s got a ponytail…he’s their kind of guy…Kyle Petty!  Nash says that he’ll be out there next week as they send us to the ring.

 

 

Match #6: Jim Powers VS M. Wallstreet

 

The Giant is in the ring acting as the ring announcer.  Hall and Nash are calling color commentary and the jokes are coming way too fast to transcribe, ladies and gentlemen.  Hall and Nash take off to the ringside area and beat the crap out of Jim Powers at ringside. Referee Randy Anderson takes off his bowtie and says that this isn’t WCW and he’s having on part of it.

 

Winner: No Contest

 

The Giant grabs the mic and announces the next match…

 

Match #7: Jim Powers VS The Giant

 

    As Randy Anderson leaves, Nick Patrick arrives and says that what they need right now is a man who will stand for law and order.  He enters the ring just in time for Giant to beat down Powers and drop him with the chokeslam.  Patrick counts the pin and raises Giant’s hand.

 

Winner: The Giant

 

During the match, Hogan is in the back with a can of paint, tagging every wall he can with the nWo tag.  He knocks on a door and out come the Nasty Boys.  Hogan congratulates  Knobbs on his sister getting married and glad-hands them a bit.  He says that he’s ready to talk some business tonight so he tells the Nasty Boys to take his room key and meet him later at his suite and they’ll talk about anything that they want to talk about.  He even sends the WCW Championship belt with them and tells them to pop the champagne and get it ready for them.

 

Match #8: “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan VS Ron Studd

 

On his way to the ring, Hogan stops Studd on the way to the ring and says that Duggan is their guy and they want to take care of him tonight.  Hogan blindsides Studd and he and Nash beat Studd down.  Hall, on commentary, says “cue the music” and the now famous nWo theme starts.  Is this the first time that we’ve ever heard this?  Hall says that it’s the soundtrack to our favorite adult film, brought to us by the nWo.

Giant says that this match will now be Duggan VS Syxx.

 

Match #8: “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan VS Syxx

 

Hogan says that no one gets in their way.  He has to admire the Macho Man.  Hogan says he was booked in Japan one time and he had a family tragedy, so he turned around and came back.  He says that the entire WCW is about to die, but the rest of WCW all turned tail and ran away but Savage was the only man to stay around and take the butt whipping.

Duggan starts the match by swinging his 2×4 wildly at anyone and anything he can find.    Syxx blindsides Duggan to start off, but Duggan quickly takes over control of the match.  Hogan says that after Syxx takes care of him, they’re going to have to have a talk with Duggan as well.  Duggan goes for a pin on Syxx after a clotheline, but Giant pulls him out of the ring and chokeslams him onto the concrete and rolls him back into the ring.  Syxx quickly covers and Patrick counts the pin.

 

Winner: Syxx

 

Bischoff tries to say that Duggan had the match won, but Vincent just keeps messing with him and bullying him.  He asks what they want so that he can just leave, but Hogan says that he has their demands.  Syxx returns to the announce booth as we go to commercial break for the October issue of WCW Magazine (which I remember buying!).

Back from commercial break and we have Sting’s music playing.  The nameplate actually says nWo Sting, but Hogan says that this is the real Sting despite Bischoff stating that Sting is in Japan.

 

Match #9: “Sting” VS Bo LeDeau

 

According to Bischoff, the nWo brought Bo LeDeau with them.  “Sting” woooos a lot and beats his chest a lot.  He gets Sting’s face crusher, hits the Stinger Splash, and follows with the Scorpion Deathlock as the crowd loudly chants “We Want Sting!”

 

Winner: “Sting”

 

Hogan sneezes in a Macho Man bandanna and tears it apart as he wonders if Liz is tending to Macho Man.  He says that all of his Hollywood friends like Stallone, Arsenio, and Arnold have been hitting him up for tickets as we go to commercial break.

 

Back from break and we have High Voltage come out and cut pretty stupid promos into the camera.  Look, I LOVE High Voltage…but this makes them just look bad.

 

Match #10: High Voltage VS The Amazing French Canadians

 

The French Canadians get instant heat by singing the national anthem and damn near killing the town.  Out comes The Outsiders, thankfully.  The French Canadians leave the ring and head to the back, so it looks like we’re actually getting…

 

Match #10: High Voltage VS The Outsiders

 

Hall and Robbie Rage start the match off and Hall sends Rage into the ropes, but Rage simply falls on his face in a pretty stupid looking display.  Referee Nick Patrick immediately starts asking if Rage wants to quit the match.  I remember that bugging me so much when I watched this back in the day.  Nick Patrick is such a great heel who knows how to just look so slimy in this position.  Hall basically plays with Rage for a bit before paint brushing him in the back of the head and tagging in the big man.  Nash controls the match and drops Rage with a big side slam as we go to a commercial break.

We come back and Hall is in control and Rage is still in the match.  Nash throws him over into Kenny Kaos, who finally gets a tag.  It doesn’t matter, though, because Nash immediately takes control again.  Hogan lets us know that his kids, Nick and Brooke, can’t stand Macho Man either and are at home cheering as he beats him up.  Tag out to Hall and we get a big punch and a fallaway slam.

Bischoff pleads with the nWo to leave and Hogan laughs and wonders why some hero from WCW doesn’t run out and save them.  He asks why Liz doesn’t run out to save them!

Nash takes Kaos up top with a big back suplex off of the top and tags in Nash.  Hall forces High Voltage to tag and feeds Robbie Rage to a Jackknife Powerbomb.  Both men put a foot on Rage for the pin.

 

Winners: The Outsiders

 

The Outsiders rejoin the nWo at the announce booth as Bischoff replays the previous beatdown of Savage by the nWo.  They spend a good amount of time making fun of WCW and Bischoff.  Hall asks Giant if Andre was really his father and Giant simply looks at him and says “oh man, don’t go there.”  Bischoff tries to stand up one more time and Vincent just manhandles him down and shoves him hard a few times.  I’m pretty sure Vincent is taking a few liberties here and it’s actually kind of rough to watch, as absurd as that is.  With that, Monday Nitro goes off the air.

 

This was a very interesting episode, to say the least.  The fact that WCW will randomly have most of the roster in Japan at times definitely throws some things off and it always seems like any time that the main eventers aren’t around that Greg Valentine gets the spotlight rub.  That definitely happened in the July episode where the nWo killed everyone (found here) and we get that tonight with him against Savage.  That being said, with the entire main event scene gone, why was Savage wrestling so damn early?  What did WCW have planned for the second hour before the nWo ran in and took over?  Doesn’t really seem like much, honestly.

One place where this write up doesn’t do the show justice is definitely in the commentary after the nWo takes over.  Hogan is so good in his heel role right now.  He’s so smooth and nonchalant and through most of it doesn’t seem like he’s cutting wrestling promos, which is a breath of fresh air. Honestly, check this out and just watch from where the Savage match happens and the nWo run in.  It’s just a crazy random hodgepodge of a show, but it really does feel like the nWo has completely taken over and is running the show by the seat of their pants.  I really liked it.

I don’t remember them announcing that Kyle Petty was their race car driver, though.  I remember watching the show with my Dad and there’s an episode where the nWo are partying in a hotel room and Kyle Petty is there with them.  I do remember Petty getting into a fist fight around this time after a race, so that does tie in pretty well with them recruiting him into the nWo.  I like that.

Until next time, ladies and gentlemen!

 

Shane

 

Ratings Breakdown

WWF Raw Ratings –2

WCW Nitro Ratings – 3.4

(Raw – 17, Nitro – 30) (Tie Weeks – 2)

(Unopposed weeks – 7)

WWF’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 6

WCW’s longest Winning Streak (to this point) – 13

 

Raw Results from this week

 

• Marc Mero (w/ Sable) defeated Faarooq (w/ Sunny) in a WWF Intercontinental Title Tournament Final Match to win the vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship (14:50)
• Vader defeated Henry Godwinn
• The British Bulldog & Owen Hart defeated The Bodydonnas (Skip & Zip)
• The Stalker defeated Hunter Hurst Helmsley

 

Barry Windham in a main event against HHH?  Hey, at least this show had some name talent and we get former Johnny B. Badd winning the Intercontinental CHampionship, but this is a pretty weak show.  That being said, without the nWo shenanigans, so was Nitro…but it’s very easy to see that the nWo was where the eyes were this week.