Written By: Matt Peddycord
WCW Monday Nitro
November 4, 1996
Grand Rapids, MI
Van Andel Arena
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: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)
HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.
STING IS UP IN THE RAFTERS! The Giant, Vincent, and Ted DiBiase are in the crowd looking for him. Tonight, WCW starts a tournament to crown the first-ever WCW Women’s champion. The new belt sits in front of Tony and Larry Z. Eric Bischoff will not be here tonight because he is in Portland Oregon trying to get Roddy Piper to sign for a match with Hogan. Speaking of Hollywood, he is in the building!
Marcus Bagwell (w/Scotty Riggs) vs. Brad Armstrong
Either Brad Armstrong and Marcus Bagwell are popular, or this crowd is HOT. Headlocks and headscissors leads to a short commercial break. When we return, Bagwell gets a little pissed and slaps Armstrong, which triggers a barrage of forearms and a clothesline out to the floor. Bagwell shoots back in with Air Pillman and instead of covering the man, he tries to get the crowd clapping. Huh? Bagwell clotheslines Armstrong to the floor and follows him out with a nasty pescado that causes Brad to clank his head on the floor. Since DiBiase and Giant can’t get to Sting, they decide to leave. Back in the ring, Armstrong hits a nice tornado DDT for 1-2-NO! Bagwell comes back with a gutbuster and once they are going 90 MPH off the ropes, Bagwell catches Armstrong with a crossbody block for the 1-2-3. (7:27) These two looked like they had wrestled a 100 times by now and they probably have. Good match. **½
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Ice Train (w/Teddy Long)
Does Ice Train have a towel with sequins on it? WHAT GOOD IS THAT? And whaddaya know, the Outsiders are in the crowd now flashing the tag belts. Train moves DDP around until Page catches him with a hotshot and a flying clothesline. DDP hits the Pancake Slam and a swinging neckbreaker gets two as Ice Train presses DDP off onto Nick Patrick who sells like death. Ice Train hits a powerslam for 1-2-NO! Tony thinks the count was slow. Maybe so. Senton splash and the standing frog splash gets 1-2-NO! Train clotheslines Page out. Ref Nick Patrick goes out to check on DDP while the Outsiders attack Ice Train with the tag belts. He HARDLY sells the attack at all before getting spun back around for the DIAMOND CUTTER! Yeah, he’ll sell that for sure. (6:34) BANG! Decent match for somebody like Ice Train. *½
WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! This week, the TV champ Lord Steven Regal battles Jim Duggan! Also, Harlem Heat takes on the Amazing French Canadians! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Scotty Riggs (w/Marcus Bagwell)
Riggs gets a bunch of nearfalls on Malenko to start. We see Syxx acting a fool in the crowd. Meanwhile, Riggs runs shoulder-first into the ringpost, but then catches Malenko with a boot out of the corner. Riggs delivers a pescado to the floor and when he heads back inside to go up top, Malenko shakes the ropes to cause Riggs to fall to the apron and to the floor. GEEZ. Bagwell *tosses* Riggs back inside for Malenko to Oklahoma roll him up for the 1-2-3. (3:22) And the American Males split begins. *
We flash back to last week where Mongo helped Benoit defeat Eddie Guerrero with some assistance from the briefcase.
Chris Benoit (w/Woman) vs. Hector Guerrero
I believe this is Hector’s first appearance in WCW since he was LAZERTRON. He’s here to avenge his brother Eddie. Benoit still has his shoulder taped but it’s not as heavily taped as last week. We see some quick counters to start leading up to a headscissors by Guerrero. They go to the floor where Hector pump splashes down on Benoit. Of course, you can’t have your shoulder taped up without somebody posting it! Back inside, Guerrero rips at the arm until we go to commercial. AND WE’RE BACK! Now Benoit is in control. He drops Hector on the top rope and then elevates him for a gutbuster while Woman laughs about it at ringside. Guerrero armdrags out of a deep ab stretch, but gets nailed with another gutbuster. Hector comes back with a series of nearfalls and a headscissors out of the corner. Terry Funk roll gets a nearfall, but Woman interrupts by pulling on Hector’s hair. He goes to yell at her and gets rolled up by Benoit for the cheap 1-2-3. (9:51 shown) Match of the night for sure with the story being that Benoit will treat Hector just as if he were Eddie by going after the ribs the whole match. Good stuff. **¾
HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.
We flash back again to last week where the Giant yelled threats at Jarrett and the Four Horsemen from the crowd.
Mike Tenay grabs an interview with Jeff Jarrett, Benoit, Woman, Mongo and Debra. Jarrett tries to act like a Horseman, but Benoit interrupts and tells Tenay to ask Horseman questions to actual Horsemen members. Mongo feels the same way. As the Horsemen leave, Tenay talks to Jarrett about being a leader of WCW. He thinks Sting has dropped the ball. We look up and Sting’s listening to all this from the rafters. Sting has a look on his face like he’s going to deal with Jarrett. Possibly next week? We’ll find out!
It’s time for On the Road with Lee Marshall! He’s in St. Petersburg Florida getting people hyped for next week’s show!
Madusa vs. Reina Jubuki – WCW Women’s Title First Round Tournament Match
Interesting little fact: Reina Jubuki is Akira Hokuto under an elaborate lucha libre mask. She performed in CMLL as this character and held the CMLL Women’s title – that is until she decided to wrestle with this gimmick against the wishes of CMLL in WCW. Since she did what she did, she was stripped of the belt because of her loyalty to WCW and the GAEA women’s promotion. In return, she received two slots in the tournament – one here and again as Akira Hokuto. Jubuki bites all over Madusa (specifically hands and feet!) until ZERO heads out to get a closer look with her manager Sonny Oono. ZERO is legendary Joshi wrestler Chigusa Nagayo – founder of GAEA and one-half of the famous Crush Gals tag team with Lioness Asuka of the ’80s. She’s definitely nothing to look at, but she can wrestle. Oono makes jokes about American cars while Madusa headscissors Jubuki off the top. Jubuki hits a Northern Lights suplex for two. She scores with a missile dropkick for another nearfall. Madusa slips out of a slam and delivers a BRIDGING GERMAN SUPLEX for the 1-2-3. (3:14) Madusa advances! Decent match as you would expect. If ZERO gets past Malia Hosaka, she’ll face Madusa in the semifinals. **
Chris Jericho vs. M. Wallstreet
I can’t believe how similar every Wallstreet match is! He cheats with the ab stretch and works a chinlock. Jericho makes his comeback with a missile dropkick to send Wallstreet out. Of course it’s just a ploy to sucker Jericho out so he can throw him into the ringpost. Back in, Jericho surprises Wallstreet with an inside cradle for the 1-2-3. (6:47) Seriously – they’re all the same. ¾*
Mike Tenay interviews ref Nick Patrick, his attorney, and Chris Jericho just like last week. The same things are said. The attorney does make a funny concerning Jericho’s father Ted Irvine – “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” That actually did make me laugh. Teddy Long comes out to tell Nick Patrick that he’s a player hater. And finally, the attorney brings up Teddy Long’s checkered past as a crooked referee. THANK YOU! Now we can all see the irony of Teddy Long getting screwed.
Lex Luger vs. Booker T (w/Sister Sherri)
Rematch from last week after Luger lost via countout because he saw Sting. Luger hits a suplex and clotheslines Booker to the floor before we go to commercial. We come back and Luger is giving Booker a running powerslam for two. Booker catches Lex for a hotshot and tosses him out for a field goal kick from Sherri. Back in, Booker nails the Hook Kick, but whiffs on the Jumping Leg Lariat and crotches himself on the top rope, which Luger treats like it’s a pony ride. Clotheslines and the powerslam follows, but Booker hooks the ropes to avoid the TORTURE RACK. Booker catches Luger charging at him in the corner with a knee and hits an enziguri. Wait a minute, Col. Parker – the man who cost the Heat the belts to the new World order – comes down for a hug from his sweet potato pie. Booker wants to knock that sucka out and grabs him when he gets on the apron, but that allows Luger to schoolboy Booker for the 1-2-3. (5:55 shown) Oh man, Parker cost Booker another big time victory. Somewhat better than last week. **
We get a phone call from Eric Bischoff. What’s the scoop, Eric? He says the talks between he and Roddy are going well, but unfortunately his agents won’t allow him to sign for the match. He’ll personally be talking with Roddy Piper next Tuesday in Toronto on the set of his latest movie to hopefully strike a deal.
They replay the Piper-Hogan confrontation for probably the hundredth time on WCW programming. We see the same thing from last week as Hollywood Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and the Giant all head out to the ring. Hogan gets the Hollywood spotlight and hypes up his new film, “Santa With Muscles”. We get to see a clip of him as a mall Santa Claus beating up two goons stealing from some Christmas charity bucket. So bad, its entertaining. He thinks this movie deserves an Oscar nomination. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. He also wants Ted Turner to nominate him for a Cable ACE award for making Nitro so hot. And before we go, he calls Roddy Piper too scared to wrestle him. Now it’s time to pose for the crowd! Give them what they want, Hollywood!
And that’s it. Geez, was this the same episode as last week or what?
World War 3 goes down on November 24. Here’s the card as it looks right now.
MAIN EVENT: 60-Man Battle Royal – Winner gets the next WCW World Title shot
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Nasty Boys
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Psychosis