WCW Nitro 10/21/1996

Written By: Matt Peddycord

WCW Monday Nitro
October 21, 1996
Mankato, MN
Civic Center

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)

According to the Nitro intro, Hulkamania is still running wild.

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

Flashback to last week when Randy Savage walked out after Eric Bischoff showed him a heartfelt video confession from his ex-wife Elizabeth. Seriously, what was Eric thinking?

Chris Jericho vs. Bobby Eaton
Yay! Bobby isn’t pretending to be British anymore. As Jericho heads to the ring, Tony lets us that Sting is in the building. Before the bell sounds, we see that Syxx and the bogus Sting are up in the crowd videotaping Jericho’s match. Chris Jericho takes on Syxx at Halloween Havoc, folks! After a commercial break, the match begins. Jericho flips out of a back suplex and dropkicks Eaton down for a half surfboard. Eaton escapes and they have a little trouble getting off a powerslam, but Eaton makes it work for two. They trade a hammerlock and Jericho spinning heel kicks Eaton to the apron for his springboard dropkick. Bobby snaps Jericho’s neck on the top rope to take control. Jericho punches out of an armbar and they wind up punching each other out to the floor. Man, Eaton tastes the ringpost and then takes a backdrop on the concrete! Back in, Eaton surprises Jericho with a Swinging Neckbreaker like old times. Jericho tries to stop the FLYING KNEE DROP, but Eaton shoves him back down and connects for 1-2-NO! And just like that, Jericho catches Eaton with a jumping kick to the face and delivers a Missile Dropkick for the 1-2-3. (7:15) Good TV match and good to see Eaton not being a British person from Alabama anymore. Syxx gives Jericho the ‘crotch chop’ from the stands. Is it just me or does it seem like Syxx is coming up with the wolfpack signs and the crotch chop all on his own? **½

Tony Schiavone gets a word with Jericho after the match. He points out Syxx and the bogus Sting were watching your match. Jericho finds it ironic that Syxx would be watching his match because in six days at Halloween Havoc, the undefeated new World order and most importantly Syxx will be leaving Las Vegas with a loss! BA-ZING!

Video package of Rey Mysterio Jr. is shown

Dean Malenko vs. Jimmy Graffiti
Jimmy Graffiti is my favorite Heavenly Bodies member Jimmy Del Ray with shorter hair in Super Calo clothing minus the mask. He actually looks and dresses like my neighbor which is quite strange. Just imagine BG James. This is also his WCW debut. Still carrying the mask, Malenko is only SIX days away from taking back his cruiserweight title from Rey. Nice wristlock exchange to start. Graffiti shoves Malenko down to the mat, which he rolls through, and flips back onto his feet to take Graffiti down into a drop toehold. Graffiti fights out of a chinlock and hits a hurricane DDT for two. Awesome. Sitout powerbomb gets another two for Graffiti. Superkick earns him another nearfall. Malenko yanks Graffiti into the corner and takes over. Malenko knocks him around while we look up to see the bogus Sting videotaping the match. Back suplex from Malenko gets two. He follows up with the Jumping Shin Kick and delivers the running corner clothesline. Vertical suplex sets up the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF, but Graffiti kicks him off. Crossbody block by Malenko puts them both on the floor, but Malenko ends up eating the ringpost. Back in though, Graffiti flies down into the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF for real and that gets the submission victory he needs going into the PPV. (6:42) Great debut for Graffiti that showed off some of what he could do. I kind of miss the hip swiveling goodness though. Sadly, I don’t remember Graffiti doing anything else in WCW but have this one good match. ***

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! Featured on the show will be Dean Malenko, Jeff Jarrett, Ron Studd, Chris Benoit, the Faces of Fear, Eddie Guerrero, and more of nWo Saturday Night with Hall and Nash in tag team action! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman (w/Teddy Long)
Page gets a video package filled with Diamond Cutters to put over how deadly the finisher is. And what do you know, Nick Patrick is the referee, which means there’s an argument coming with Teddy Long. This is all DDP until Pittman throws him off the cover onto Nick Patrick. They go to the floor where Pittman posts the arm and takes him back into the ring to break it off with the CODE RED. For some reason, Teddy Long hops up on the apron while Page is supposedly submitting. Nevertheless, he makes the ropes. When Pittman goes to yell at Patrick, he gets spun back around for the DIAMOND CUTTER to give DDP the victory. (2:55) And since it seems to be a weekly habit, Teddy Long points and screams at Nick Patrick for costing his man the match. ¾*

Since there’s still no Gene Okerlund, Tony talks with Nick Patrick about the finish of the last match and makes another loud assumption about Nick Patrick being the ref for nWo Saturday Night. Patrick threatens Schiavone that he’ll get rid of him just like he did Gene Okerlund for talking junk about him. The man is OFFENDED.

Flashback to two weeks ago when the new World order beat up Ric Flair and stole his US title.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron Studd
Another booking habit is that everybody goes through Ron Studd before they face the Giant. Jarrett is no exception. Ric Flair comes out to the ring in his street clothes (a suit) to have a strut-off with Jarrett. One of the most embarrassing things about wrestling is stuff like this. Obviously without question, the crowd chooses Flair over Jarrett. They shake hands and Flair leaves the ring to let Jarrett squash big Ron Studd. Jarrett receives a choke lift, but blocks a suplex using the ropes and takes Ron Studd up and down with a suplex. FIGURE-FOUR gets the submission. (1:29) But can he put the Figure-Four on the Giant? Find out at Halloween Havoc! ½*

Tony talks with Jeff Jarrett after the match. Jarrett says WCW needs to stop playing defense and start playing offense against the new World order. Giant’s has dished out chokeslams for everybody except Jeff Jarrett and it won’t happen at Halloween Havoc. Ric Flair comes by to put over Jarrett for saying good things about him and while Flair rants on about the new World order, we look over and see the Giant watching on from the stands. WOOOO!

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

Lex Luger vs. Roadblock
Here’s another WCW debut in Roadblock. He’s just a bigger version of Balls Mahoney. Did Bischoff just say Luger has a successful rack? I think he did. Pretty typical Luger match. He takes a bunch of fat people moves while Arn Anderson delivers a pre-taped promo on the split-screen. After that’s over, Luger hits a powerslam and calls for the TORTURE RACK. It takes him a couple tries, but Lex eventually gets the big guy up on his shoulders for the submission win. (3:48) ROADBLOCK. ½*

The same old nWo t-shirt ad airs. BUY THE SHIRT.

It’s time for On the Road with Lee Marshal. He’s in Phoenix Arizona for next week’s Nitro, but in the meantime he’s going to hang out with some old high school and college buddies since he went to Arizona State. SUN DEVILLLS! I thought he said he went to school in California so I don’t know if this guy is just plugging colleges along the way or what he’s doing.

WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri & Col. Robert Parker) vs. The American Males
Just so he doesn’t have to compete with Turner’s own Atlanta Braves, Bischoff tells you the score to game two of the ‘96 world series happening on your local FOX station. Braves 4, Yankees 0. I must say I do love that score though. Too bad the Braves lost FOUR STRAIGHT after that. I’ll never forget! Anyways, Stevie Ray starts off against Riggs. He spends much of that time missing clotheslines until he catches Riggs for a big slam. Double back elbow from the American Males gets two. In comes Booker, he and Bagwell do the ‘hiptoss across the ring’ spot that puts Booker out to the floor. Back inside, Bagwell is in charge as we go to commercial. When we return, the American Males are still controlling Booker. Just as I say that, Stevie Ray kicks Bagwell from the apron into a powerbomb. Wait a minute – now Hall and Nash are in the stands videotaping the match and wearing BREATHE RIGHT STRIPS. HAHAAHHAHA. This gets the Heat distracted a little bit, but not enough to turn the tide back over to the Males. Booker connects with the flying forearm, but flies down into a dropkick from Bagwell. HOT TAG TO RIGGS! Double dropkick to Stevie Ray! Sherri and Parker get up on the apron and when Parker goes to defend his lady, he gets decked. That’s all the distraction Booker T needs to nail Riggs when he turns around with the Jumping Leg Lariat. Stevie Ray jumps on him for the cover and gets the 1-2-3. (9:35) Of the three I remember, this might have been their most competitive match to date where the American Males didn’t look like underdogs. *½

The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Fantastics
Well they have the Rock N Roll Express, now the Fantastics, all they need is Stan Lane and the late ’80s tag division can be reborn. Poor formerly most cutest man in wrestling Bobby Fulton has darkened his hair color, gained some flab, and stopped being tan. It’s truly sad. The only thing that appears to have changed for Tommy Rogers is his hair is a little longer. Other than that, he looks the same to me. Too bad they’re about to get annihilated by my FAVORITE tag team in WCW right now – the Faces of Freakin Fear. I mean, Bobby Fulton takes a backdrop INTO a powerbomb from Barbarian. That’s power ladies and gentlemen. NASTY backbreaker is followed by a running slam into the corner. Meng delivers a piledriver to set up STEREO DIVING HEADBUTTS. Rogers gets the hot tag and peppers Barbarian. He even knocks him off his feet with a missile dropkick. The Fantastics deliver a double back suplex to Barbarian and STEREO MISSILE DROPKICKS. Cover, 1-2-NO! Rogers comes off the top with a flying bodypress, but Barb catches him as Meng walks in with the KICK OF FEAR! Good night. (5:21) Thanks for trying. Look out Benoit and Mongo. They’re coming for you two at Halloween Havoc! *

Once again, they replay the Elizabeth confession video and Savage’s reaction.

nWo Sting vs. JL
Some people thinks its Sting and then everybody realizes it’s not really him. The rest of the new World order come down through the crowd and surround the ring. Basic Sting squash where he hits the Stinger Splash and follows through with the SCORPION DEATHLOCK until the REAL Sting makes his first appearance since 9/16 Nitro with white face paint and wearing a black trenchcoat. (1:45) He grabs the bogus Sting off JL and delivers the SCORPION DEATHDROP. Jumping elbow drops! How about a Stinger Splash? Why not. He hooks on the SCORPION DEATHLOCK with his back turned to the nWo, but releases the hold when they all get in the ring. DiBiase introduces the audience to the real Stinger. DiBiase, Hall, and Nash all try to convince Sting to ‘break on through to the other side’. The real Sting calls the bogus Sting a cheap imitation since the real Sting isn’t exactly in their price range. All you can say for sure about Sting is nothing’s for sure. And the real Sting drops the mic and walks out. The new World order has no idea what to make of what just happened. And by the way, we don’t hear Sting’s voice again until January 1998. No rating.

Randy Savage vs. Chris Benoit
No match. Savage comes late down the aisle looking all emo and wearing black leather from head to toe. Bischoff stops him again and shows him another video. WHAT. This time it’s from Hollywood Hogan on the set of ‘3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain’. And what do you know – Hogan has hair! Hogan takes over the film and replaces the director with the Giant. Hollywood puts Liz in front of the camera and wants her to make Randy believe that she still loves him. All she wants is for Hogan to leave her alone. When she doesn’t do what she’s told, Hogan sends her to her trailer. Since she won’t tell the camera how much she still loves Randy, Hogan says he’s going to give her some acting lessons. When he’s done with her, she’ll only be thinking of Hollywood Hogan. See you in Vegas, Macho Creep!

Back to the arena, Savage hesitates but finally says something into the mic – “It just occurred to me how fragile friendships and relationships can be. And you and I Eric Bischoff, we both know how fragile business can be. Even marriage is fragile, but Hulk Hogan – life is fragile.” And then he walks out. Whoa, Savage is SERIOUS.

And that does it for me. Halloween Havoc 1996 is next!

Speaking of Halloween Havoc, here’s the final card.

MAIN EVENT: WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Randy Savage
WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs. The Outsiders
Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael vs. The Faces of Fear
Lex Luger vs. Arn Anderson
Chris Jericho vs. Syxx
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett
Eddie Guerrero vs. Diamond Dallas Page – Battlebowl Ring!
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko