WCW Nitro 10/14/1996

Written By: Matt Peddycord

WCW Monday Nitro
October 14, 1996
Memphis, TN
Mid-South Coliseum

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Harlem Heat (10/5/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Rey Mysterio (7/8/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

Flashback from last week is shown where the nWo made Liz watch Hogan beat up her ex-husband Randy Savage.

Dean Malenko vs. Brad Armstrong
Malenko’s still carrying Rey’s mask around to get himself psyched and ready for Halloween Havoc. Armstrong got a controversial victory (the old ’80s finish where both guys shoulders are pinned, but one guy lifts his up at the last second) over on Malenko on an episode of Saturday Night and now Dean wants his win back. The fans are too busy chanting ‘nWo’ to be concerned with this match. Both take turns trading hammerlock and chinlocks at the start. The action picks up when Armstrong delivers a missile dropkick. RUSSIAN LEGSWEEP! Part of Brad’s problem was his inability to adjust to the times and caused him to never get over in the late ’90s. When your finisher is a Russian legsweep, you desperately need to modify yourself. No matter how much momentum you put behind it, it’s still just another move by this point. They fight over a suplex and Malenko flips out and a three-quarter nelson inside cradle gets the win. (5:22) Decent match, but like I said the crowd wasn’t even paying attention. **¼

The new World order limos arrive. They’re all such good friends.

Jim Duggan vs. M. Wallstreet
This feud is still going on? WHY? Wallstreet spends a long time on the chinlock. Pretty standard for Rotunda by this point in time. Once Duggan goes for the tape, Wallstreet knocks him down and takes it from him. While he’s wrapping up his fist, Duggan delivers the THREE POINT STANCE for the 1-2-3. (4:34) Next. ½*

Hugh Morrus vs. Jim Powers (w/Teddy Long)
Schiavone takes a moment to thank Jerry Lawler for helping promote this event and putting all these people in the seats – the biggest crowd ever at the Mid-South coliseum. He continues on to say, “We’ll see him at the flea market on Thursday!” Larry Z – “He’s selling fleas now?” Not sure what that was about. Powers gets some cliché babyface offense early, but Morrus takes over with clotheslines. He teases the NO LAUGHING MATTER moonsault several times, which allows Powers to make a comeback with turnbuckle smashes. Powers hits a sunset flip and a powerslam – both pin attempts where evil ref Nick Patrick is EXTREMELY slow on the count. Small package from Powers and we get the same result. Morrus catches Powers with a back suplex and hits the NO LAUGHING MATTER for the win. (6:34) Like we’ve seen over the last few weeks, Teddy Long and Nick Patrick get into an argument. Kind of ironic considering Teddy Long was guilty of the same thing in 1989 when he was a referee. ¾*

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! The Faces of Fear get rough with Rough N Ready! Plus, you’ll see Lex Luger, Randy Savage, Diamond Dallas Page, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, and more of nWo Saturday Night! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

Lex Luger vs. Greg Valentine
Flexy Lexy has his ribs taped thanks to AA’s attack with the chair last week. Like a shark that smells blood (sorry for the bad cliché), Valentine works over Lex’s lower back as Ted DiBiase and Vincent watch on from the crowd. In typical Luger fashion, he still manages to hoist Valentine up in the TORTURE RACK for the submission. (6:35) WE NEED YOU, STINGER! PLEASE COME HOME! *

After the match, Tony Schiavone tells ref Nick Patrick that Savage was fined for beating him up, but it was only $500 instead of the $1 million that Nick Patrick requested. Patrick’s reaction is VERY passionate and obviously he’s pissed because now he’s threatening to bring in a legal staff to take care of this problem. Tony says he understands his plight and then brings up the latest edition of nWo Saturday Night where the ski-mask wearing referee looked a lot like Nick Patrick. It even SOUNDS like him, but Patrick denies the whole thing. We look over to see Ted DiBiase and Vincent still watching on from the crowd.

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.

Randy Savage vs. Mike Enos
Before this match even begins, Bischoff stops Savage in the aisle way and brings out a TV to show Randy a very well produced home video of Elizabeth spilling her guts while sitting on a homemade swing Randy made for her. She still loves Randy and she’s made a HUGE mistake getting involved with the new World order. So please Randy, don’t shut her out. Well that was awkward.

Anyways, Randy Savage gets all emotional and says absolutely nothing before deciding to leave the building. Gee, way to go Eric. Two weeks before Halloween Havoc and you show him this video of his ex-wife telling him she still loves him? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Eddie Guerrero vs. The Cheetah Kid
Cheetah Kid isn’t Rocco Rock – a character he used to be in the ’80s and early ’90s – it’s some other guy from the independent scene I’m assuming getting a big tryout. He’s got a Tiger Mask look to him, but with cheetah spots instead of stripes. Cheetah hits one powerbomb, but Eddie avoids a second one with a lucha armdrag. Eddie catches Cheetah up top (fastest animal in the world, eh?) and takes him down with a rana to set up the FROG SPLASH for the 1-2-3. (2:41) He’s coming for you, DDP. *½

1-800-COLLECT presents our first “On the Road with Lee Marshall” segment. He’s up in Minnesota four days early for a big house show up there. What a retard.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Big Bubba (w/Jimmy Hart)
HUGE ovation for Jarrett and the ‘Fargo Strut’. Bubba controls early until Jarrett puts on the brakes off a whip and struts a little more for the crowd. Jarrett unloads with punches, but Jimmy Hart grabs his ankle. That causes Jarrett to give chase, which is all just to bait Jarrett around the ring into a back elbow from Bubba. That allows Jimmy to be able to put the boots to him. Jarrett fires back on Bubba on the apron and comes inside with a flying bodypress for 1-2-NO! Chinlock from Bubba. Jarrett escapes, but takes the Bossman straddle. Jarrett misses a dropkick and then takes a right cross for 1-2-NO! Bubba misses a corner charge, allowing Jarrett to kick him around. Inverted atomic drop sets up a FIGURE-FOUR attempt. Jimmy hops up on the apron and gets nailed. Memphis loved that one. Off the ropes, Jarrett charges into a Spinebuster from Bubba. He mounts Jarrett and dishes out some punches, but one of them catches ref Mark Curtis. Anyways, Jimmy tosses Bubba the megaphone, but Jarrett pops up and dropkicks the megaphone into Bubba’s face for the 1-2-3. (6:43) Fun stuff and easily match of the night. **½

WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri & Col. Robert Parker) vs. The Faces of Fear
Bischoff begins to apologize to Randy Savage and the entire Poffo family if they happen to be offended by what he did. OF COURSE THEY ARE. Why wouldn’t they be? Benoit, McMichael, and Debra come out to distract the Faces of Fear a little bit at the start of the match. Booker T nails Meng with a superkick, but it takes an extra Jumping Leg Lariat to take him down. Barbarian eats a Bicycle Kick from Stevie Ray that sends him to the floor. Back inside, Booker hits a hook kick for two. He heads up top, but Meng puts a stop to that and Barbarian brings him down with an Overhead Superplex! Tag to Meng, he does a little dance for Sherri. HAHA WHAT. Nasty sitout powerbomb to Booker gets two. Barbarian delivers a backbreaker which sets Booker up for STEREO DIVING HEADBUTTS. The action continues as Scott Hall and Kevin Nash make their way through the crowd down to ringside to mess with the Heat. (7:17) Oddly enough, the Faces of Fear stand beside Harlem Heat! Obviously Hall and Nash do not want to mess with all four men, so they exit stage right, but the match is over. It really wasn’t too bad. **

It’s Main Event Interview Time! Hollywood Hogan leads the way as the rest of the new World order make their way to the ring. Since she’s basically a hostage, Liz is stuck in the middle of the group. Everybody’s here: Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, The Giant, nWo Sting, Ted DiBiase, Syxx, and Vincent. He calls Elizabeth the ‘greatest actress in the world’ for her performance in that confession video. Well, she tries to smack him across the face, but Hogan catches her swing and orders Giant to take hold of her. Here comes the Nasty Boys wearing nWo shirts and a contract in their hands. They tell Hollywood thanks for the sweet deal, but why aren’t they getting more money than they expected? Hogan checks out the contract and sees he didn’t sign it and nobody wears the nWo colors without his permission, so they get the crap beat out of them and spray painted. Just more of the ‘business is more important than friendship’ motto they’ve been hammering on us since Hog Wild. Hogan continues to berate Randy Savage and Elizabeth while talking about working on the latest “3 Ninjas” film every now and then because he’s SO Hollywood. Funny how he talks so tough, yet he’s the protagonist in a movie where he’s dependent on a bunch of kids with Loni Anderson and Ernest P. Worrell.

The nWo takes over the announce table, but their mics get cut pretty quickly as we take one more look at Savage’s emotional reaction to the Elizabeth confession video.

Halloween Havoc is only thirteen days away and here’s the card.

MAIN EVENT: WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Randy Savage
WCW U.S. Champion Ric Flair vs. The Giant (can you smell the bait and switch?)
WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs. The Outsiders
Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael vs. The Faces of Fear
Lex Luger vs. Arn Anderson
Eddie Guerrero vs. Diamond Dallas Page – Battle for the Ring!
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko