WCW Nitro 12/9/1996

Written By: Matt Peddycord

WCW Monday Nitro
December 9, 1996
Charlotte, NC
Independence Arena

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Vacant (11/25/1996)
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.

Right out of the shoot, we hear bagpipes as Roddy Piper makes his way to the ring. Take that, RAW! Piper names some local landmarks that he used to frequent back in the day. The crowd loves it. He mentions that at Starrcade against Hogan will be his last fight. Yeah right. Naturally, Charlotte KNOWS Hogan sucks. Piper continues on and tells us something that nobody could have ever known – his boxing match with Mr. T was a work! WHO KNEW! He calls out a guy holding up a ‘This is nWo country’ sign and makes the assumption that because there’s no chicks in the nWo vignettes and they’re all wearing leather that they might be playing for a different team than Piper. He’s just saying. Okay enough funny business, the inevitable happens as Piper calls out Hogan to get this fight going right now. No Hogan, so Piper leaves. He’ll be back.

M. Wallstreet vs. Mike Enos
Schiavone talks Carolina Panthers football before Ted DiBiase comes out for a distraction. He appears to offer Enos a contract when Wallstreet decks him from behind for the STOCK MARKET CRASH to pick up the win. (1:36) So DiBiase hands Wallstreet a contract and walks away. Wallstreet seems pretty happy about it too. MONEY INC IS BACK, BAYBEE! ¼*

Flashback to Saturday Night: Schiavone shows a video to Kevin Sullivan of Chris Benoit and Woman enjoying some wine together at an undisclosed area. To say Sullivan is distraught is an understatement.

Hugh Morrus vs. Renegade (w/Joe Gomez)
Morrus knocks Renegade around to start. Renegade powers out of a bearhug (?) and powerslams Morrus for two. Handspring Elbow connects, but Morrus blocks a bulldog with a back suplex to set up the NO LAUGHING MATTER for the win. (3:01) He goes for another moonsault, but Gomez pulls his boy out. ½*

Here comes Kevin Sullivan wearing a Four Horsemen shirt with an X taped over the logo. He power walks over to Schiavone and blesses him out for airing something that affects his personal life without his consent. Didn’t they just do this same thing with Bischoff and Savage?

We take a special video look at the recent actions of Sting set to Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero”. Yes, a song from the Footloose movie soundtrack makes it to WCW television. Did they think this wasn’t going to make me laugh? Oh man, I hope we see a Sullivan-Woman video set to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” soon!

Gene Okerlund brings out Kevin Greene to get Charlotte all excited. Even though everyone else has, he still hasn’t forgot about what Mongo did at the Great American Bash. Also, he wants to punch Hogan in the face if he gets the chance. What a wild man.

WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Jimmy Graffiti
A feeling out process leads to a commercial break. We return to see Sonny Oono taking pictures from ringside. That gets Malenko all distracted as Graffiti takes over. They trade some suplexes as Malenko dropkicks Graffiti to the floor. Graffiti avoids the baseball slide and nails Malenko with a clothesline before dropping him on the guardrail. Back inside, Malenko crotches Graffiti up top for a superplex. Back up, Graffiti puts on the brakes when he sees a leapfrog and superkicks Malenko down for two. Powerbomb and a slow jackknife cover gets two. Malenko bridges out into a powerbomb of his own for 1-2-NO! Awesome. Graffiti catches Malenko charging at him for a hotshot, but Malenko counters a suplex into a small package for the 1-2-3. (7:04 shown) Great little match, but they didn’t quite pull out on the stops in a TV match sense like they did last time around. **¼

Gene Okerlund gets a word from Sonny Oono, who is no Herb Ritts in Gene’s eyes. He calls Oono’s accent phony. Oono says that with an accent, he can get and do whatever he wants in America. It’s such a wonderful country!

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! WCW TV Champ Lord Steven Regal defends the belt against Hugh Morrus! Jim Duggan, Renegade & Joe Gomez, Jeff Jarrett, Diamond Dallas Page, Ice Train, Dean Malenko, and many others are featured on the show! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

We see some clips from the triangle match from World War 3.

The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Nasty Boys
This is somewhat notable as it’s the final match ever on Nitro for the Nasty Boys as a team. It’s a clubberin’ affair to say the least. Where’s Dusty at when you need him? The tag champs Hall and Nash watch on from the tunnel. The finish comes as Jimmy Hart goes to smash his megaphone on Knobbs as he comes off the top ropes, but Knobbs moves and Barbarian gets wiped out. Knobbs throws Jimmy out on top of Meng on the outside. Barbarian whacks Knobbs with the megaphone anyway as the ref makes the three count. (5:20) What was the point of this? To prove that the Faces of Fear deserve the tag titles shot? I don’t know. ½*

Gene Okerlund brings out Ric Flair. He praises and calls for Roddy Piper to come down. They embrace and just enjoy each other’s sentiments about how crazy they used to be. Flair goes to ask Charlotte what they think of Hogan? He sucks. Yep. Hogan SUCKS. Anyways, Flair says that Piper’s got his support because he wants to see Piper kick Hogan’s butt. WOO! Piper says he appreciates the help, but he’s got to do this by himself.

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.

Flashback to Earlier Tonight: Piper calls out Hogan.

Chris Jericho vs. Bobby Eaton
Early on, Eaton hits the Flying Knee Drop for two. Jericho comes back with the spinning heel kick and a Lionsault for two. Eaton catches Jericho up top and brings him down with an electric chair drop. The ALABAMA JAM misses, but a missile dropkick from Jericho gives him the win. (2:33) Man I can’t wait for Jericho to have a personality. ½*

Recap of the recent stuff that has happened between Sting and the Steiners.

That leads to Gene Okerlund talking with the Steiners themselves. Scott says that you don’t hand my brother a bat in a fight.

Now we get a video montage of Lex Luger racking people.

Arn Anderson (w/Steve & Debra McMichael) vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman
Pittman grew a mustache. Now you KNOW he’s serious. On the split screen, Sullivan blames Arn Anderson for letting Benoit mess with his Woman. Next week, they will hook it up. Pittman goes after the arm until AA says something to Mongo as we go to break. When that’s over, we see Pittman getting his knee posted. Arn goes up top, which is always a mistake. Pittman slams him down and hooks on the CODE RED! Arn makes the ropes and we got to the floor where Debra starts talking to the ref. Meanwhile, Mongo jabs the Haliburton briefcase into Pittman’s ribs. Back inside with Pittman doubled over, Arn drops him with the DDT! See ya. (2:57 shown) Again, AA is just phoning it in during the last month or so of his in-ring career. Who can blame him with opponents like this? ½*

Gene Okerlund meets with Arn, Mongo, and Debra for another pow-wow about what to do with Woman. Debra meanders on about how she thinks she’s the most powerful member of the Horsemen. Will somebody please punch her in the mouth? Benoit – come home (from a WCW tour in Germany). Woman – Arn’s got a bone to pick with you.

On the Road with Lee Marshall: He’s living it up in GORGEOUS Pensacola, Florida, where Nitro will be held next week. Somehow that guy always manages to find those non-existent Nitro parties.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jeff Jarrett – First Round WCW U.S. Title Tournament Match
Since Luger and AA went to a double countout, the winner of this match goes to the finals at Starrcade on a bye to face the winner of Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit. That match goes down in two weeks! Sometimes it’s funny what becomes the main event in a promotion years down the road. Feeling out and strutting occurs as we go to break. AND WE’RE BACK! Page hits a back suplex and a tilt-a-whirl sideslam for two. Jarrett comes back with an enziguri and nails DDP with a swinging neckbreaker to regain control. Bossman straddle connects. Jarrett delivers a slingshot suplex and follows up with the Memphis flying fist drop. Page fires back, but telegraphs a backdrop and takes a faceslam. Page fights out of a sleeper and drills Jarrett with the discus clothesline. Flying lariat gets 1-2-NO! Page misses a charge and falls to the floor. Meanwhile, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash head out to distract the ref and Jeff Jarrett as Hall gives him the OUTSIDERS EDGE off the middle rope. Once Hall and Nash clear out, DDP slides back into the ring and lays on top of Jarrett for the 1-2-3. (9:44 shown) An odd match as Tony and Bobby are pushing DDP as a low down scum heel, but Jarrett controls the majority of the match to set up the comeback, but then again they were prepping Page for his face turn by now anyways. Still felt a little odd though. Gene Okerlund meets DDP in the ring and asks him to explain what happened. He compares the nWo to a chick who won’t stop calling – he just wants to be left alone. **¼

Rick Steiner (w/Scott Steiner) vs. Scott Norton
No match. During Steiner’s entrance music, Roddy Piper storms the ring and demands Hogan come out now. He takes a seat in the ring waiting on Hogan. Instead, Hogan’s ‘messenger boy’ Eric Bischoff heads to the ring. Bischoff tells Piper that he tried to save him from himself, but now there’s nothing he can do. See ya in Nashville, gimp. Well that pisses Piper off a little bit. Piper decks Bischoff and holds him down with his foot until Hall, Nash, DiBiase, and the Giant head to the ring. Kevin Greene jumps in the ring for the assist. Everybody throws up the Wolfpac sign and as Nash starts to jump Piper, WE RUN OUT OF TIME!

Some matches have already been announced for Starrcade on December 29!

– MAIN EVENT: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper
– Lex Luger vs. The Giant
– WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Faces of Fear
– WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon