Written by: Kevin Kindelberger
WCW Monday Nitro 9/27/99
I have been so damn busy that I do not remember exactly what is going on. Bret Hart will be involved in the main event. Psychosis v. Kidman, and it is a mask match so the former should win. Overall it could be interesting. Nitro stayed at a 3.0, with a 4.1 start but a fall to a 2.4 and it rose to a 2.6. Jesus that is really bad, the second hour fell from a 2.9 but the third was a 2.3 the final hour. The first hour is solid but then just gets lambasted, as few RAW viewers bother tuning in. RAW got an amazing near 6.8 off of a 6.5 and 7.0.
A limo has arrived. Hogan is in the limo. He is surrounded by little kids….not set up by WCW of course, those were actual fans. Sting sneaks up from behind acting like a child asking for his autograph and then as Hogan turns he gets his knee taken out. Hogan is down and out.
Tenay is with a gimpy Hogan who is getting checked out. He is turning down medical attention and heads into the building.
Sting is sitting in the back watching on a monitor while tapping the bat, and he says that he did not get the job done. .
Match 1: Cat v. Chris Benoit (c) WCW TV Title
Cat wants to whoop somebody, and wants a title shot. Benoit comes out and Cat tells him he is going to take the belt. Benoit whips him into the corner and Cat collapses. But Cat comes back with a kick to the face and he works him over. Benoit is hiptossed across the ring. Cat taunts him and then sends him for the ride. Benoit goes for a sunset flip but it is stopped. However, Benoit’s second effort pays off and over goes the Cat. Cat kicks out and kicks Benoit again. Cat stomps and chops away. He jaws with the fans and slams Benoit. Cat gets two after an elbow drop. Benoit knocks him to the floor and thrusts him into the railing. Back in the ring, Cat takes charge and continues his typical offense, but he runs right into a lariat that tears off his head. Sonny gets in the ring and tries to hold Benoit but Cat takes him out as Benoit ducks and then he strikes with a release German. Now the diving headbutt and Crossface finishes Cat off.
**1/2 Pretty good back and forth match.
Match 2: Vampiro v. Buff Bagwell
Buff is happy to be in Atlanta and while he is Buff they are the Stuff. Vampiro kicks him in the chest and then stomps on him in the corner. Vampiro goes up top and hits Buff in the head with a flying spinkick. After a two count Buff makes his comeback and powerbombs Vampiro. The fight spills to the floor and Buff eats the steps. Back in the ring he is stuck in a chinlock. Buff gets up and is knocked back down, and Vamp goes up top and nails him getting two. Buff though comes back and muffs an atomic drop but runs him down with a forearm. Vamp strikes right back with an enzuguri. They are both up top and Vamp is tossed off and Buff finishes him with the Blockbuster.
**1/2 Another decent match. My question though is that both have to be strong, especially Vampiro. WCW has been schizo with Buff, and this is like a make up match for his loss against Berlyn. So then, what about a rematch? This match should have had more build too but as a stand alone match it was okay.
Tony and Heenan are arguing and a Candyman voice is growling Tony over and over. They show a window with a sky…okay.
After the break there is a vignette proclaiming the death of Lex. His ghost pronounces him dead, and Liz all in black looks upon him and walks away with flowers. Now she is in a cemetery with his ghost following her. She tosses flowers into the grave. Here she comes in black, and Lex is now the Total Package. She comes out and unveils a sexy dress. Damn she is hot. Fucking Luger, you helped her die. He did not kill her as everyone makes their own decisions but damn….Luger is in the spotlight in the ring getting his flex on with Terminator style music in the background.
Hogan is getting checked out in the back. Sting comes in and takes him out again!
Here comes Rey and Eddie. Revolution follows. Shane asks if we want a revolution. Dean does not want them watching his back tonight. Revolution leave.
Match 3: Dean Malenko v. Rey Mysterio Jr.
Filthy Animals leave to. Rey and Malenko exchange holds and moves. Rey armdrags him and Dean counters right back! Both end up on the floor and now they get back in and Dean goes for a powerbomb but Rey counters out only to be rolled up and nearly pinned. Rey pulls him down and bridges him getting two. Dean reverses the whip and sends Rey to the apron who punches Dean away and then springboards right into a powerbomb and is nearly pinned. Dean takes him down again and gets another near fall. Dean turns him over in the Cloverleaf but Rey gets to the ropes. Rey manages to roll him up and it is over….Just like that. Shit.
Oh, Sid and Rick arrived in a car during the match.
**1/2 Shitty timing for this match, I understand this is how it had to end as neither could dominate. My issue is to have it right before the end of the first hour. Set it up after the end of the first hour and have it go ten or fifteen minutes. A tease. I hate that.
Is my math fucked? Hugh Morrus is out…..Ah, just as I though Jimmy Hart is calling out Goldberg. I would rather see the previous match.
Match 4: Hugh Morrus v. Goldberg
Goldberg mauls him from the get go. Out on the floor Hugh gets thrust into the steps. Back in the ring amidst Goldberg chants, Goldberg powerslams him through the ring and then mounts and pounds him. Hugh pushes him to the floor where Sid slams a chair into it. Sid leaves and Goldberg slowly pulls himself to his feet. Back in the ring, Hugh hammers Goldberg; he slams him and then goes up top dropping the big elbow. Hugh cannot follow up and Goldberg is struggling. Hugh pounds him in the corner and keeps after him with clubbing blows. He slams him again and slowly heads up top and calls for his finisher. He connects! Goldberg kicks out. Hugh pulls him up and is speared and Jackhammered. Match.
** This was not bad. Longer than the last match and that should not be.
Goldberg has the mic. He is not happy with Sid. He challenges him here and now if he is man enough to accept. ZZ Top is in the audience! Goldberg has never been so serious about kicking someone’s ass in his life.
New Nitro Girl search. One is Jamie Flowers as she is quite hot.
Match 5: Evan Karagias v. Berlyn
Berlyn demands total silence from this match. Tony wonders if David Penzer speaks German and wonders how he could understand him….Jesus, Tony, don’t expose the epic stage error! But it is funny.
Berlyn knocks him around and right when Evan tries to fight back he gets poked in the eye and then kneed in the head. Berlyn stomps on him. Evan fends him off and goes up top and gets two after a flying crossbody. Berlyn reverses the whip but misses dropkick. Evan goes for a springboard but is yanked down by the Wall and finished with a neckbreaker from Berlyn.
**
Berlyn is choking him out after the match. Brad Armstrong runs down to make the save but is nailed by the Wall and pasted by Berlyn.
Goldberg is looking for Sid and a dude gives him keys…..
David Flair is on the phone. He asks for Torrie and is given a number. He looks so sad.
Match 6: West Texas Rednecks v. Harlem Heat (c) for WCW Tag Titles
Stevie Ray is apparently okay. I missed that there was an ambulance out back and someone is in it….
Booker shoves a Redneck. I do not think it is Kendall but maybe it is as he is now in and back suplexed. Booker runs him down a few times and a dropkicks sends him rolling to the floor. BW gets the tag and Ray slams him and then thrust kicks him in the head. BW fires back with kicks in the corner.
Commercial.
BW has him in a rear chinlock but Ray is up and right when he fights back he is knocked to the floor and beaten up by the other Rednecks. They go at it for a minute. I missed what really happened but BW got his knee hammered and hit with the tag belt and pinned.
** Okay.
Goldberg is on the phone with a tow company…..gives them the address.
Match 7: Rick Steiner v. Van Hammer
Rick states that Sid is busy so he is taking his place…..They warily lock up and Hammer is pushed into the corner and pummeled. Rick has owned him for the first three minutes until Hammer strikes with a shoulder block followed by a DDT and a kind of spinebuster….Charles Robinson gets in the way and Rick hammers Hammer and kicks him in the nuts. Steiner Bulldog and it is over.
*1/2 Why did Hammer ever get a minor push?
Gene calls out Bret Hart. He wonders if Bret can work with Flair. First he asks about getting hit with the bat, and Hart says he got some stitches and it will take a hell of a lot more to finish him. He talks about how he once thought of quitting and he is glad he did not. Luger and Sting are scum, and you have to surround with class. Hogan is the Elvis of wrestling and no one can touch him. Here comes Flair and Bret gushes about Flair and how he had a great match with him when he first arrived. Flair is the best there is, was and ever will be. Flair is glad to be with Bret and they will put it all behind them (the past). Flair goes off and drops elbows and will ride DDP, Luger and Sting and even Liz. Bret says this is for Hogan and wants a piece of the heels…..I wonder how much Bret drank to say all that about Hogan. Kidding. Of course he and Flair really do not get along.
Flair gets a hold of Torrie and wonders where she has been; she is with the Filthy Animals and they try to be quiet.
Sid wonders where his keys are and the dude tells him Goldberg has them.
Match 7: Konnan v. Saturn
Konnan does his thing and Tony has no idea what he was talking about. Stop burying the talent. But he has a point.
They lock up and Konnan hiptosses him. Saturn takes him down but Konnan goes right back on the offensive only to run into a thrust kick. Saturn works the arm and Konnan is up and takes him down.
Commercial.
Saturn tosses him over with a release suplex and goes back to the arm. He tosses Konnan over his shoulder and then goes up top and hits the big elbow. He gets two. Konnan grabs him out of the corner and takes him down by his legs and gets two. Saturn counters right back by tossing him over his head and gets another near fall. Now Konnan gets a couple of near falls. Saturn goes off the ropes and is back kicked and faceplanted but Konnan is slow to follow up. Here come the Luchas with Chavo leading and they swarm Konnan beating his ass. The Animals charge down and the fight is on! The Revolution run down and they are arguing about something, Saturn did not want help.
*** I actually liked this. Sets up something down the road. Not sure what….
Sid is not happy as he paces outside his car. He departs. Here comes a tow truck.
DDP comes out with Gene and makes fun of Atlanta. He thinks the fans love him. They love him not because of his charm and wit (Gene said that) but it is because of Kimberly. They also hate him because of that. The fans will never forget him because he is the greatest two time champ. Lex is three time and Sting nine time champ. Therefore they are the greatest pool of talent ever put together. He mocks Bret and Sting. Hogan was in the ambulance and DDP states he missed his flight. Gene assures a crowd that does not care that Hogan will be here tonight. DDP does not care either.
Match 8: Psychosis v. Kidman
Mask v. Hair Match.
Psychosis kicks him down and knocks him to the floor where he throws him into the railing. He grabs Kidman and rolls him back into the ring. Kidman ducks a blow and scissors him over. He connects with a dropkick and then flies at Psychosis who ducks and Kidman flies over the top rope and crashes to the floor. Psychosis is on the apron and he moonsaults on top of Kidman.
Shit, Schiavone keeps talking about Hogan. We know he will be here tonight.
Psychosis goes up top and leaps into a dropkick. Kidman is trying to take off the mask. Chavo runs down and does not like that. Psychosis takes advantage and DDT’s Kidman getting a near fall. Kidman is getting hammered by Psychosis and he is knocked to the floor where Juve and Chavo get in a few licks. Kidman is placed on the top rope and Psychosis goes up top and kicks him off. He gets two and now Kidman gets a second wind and tees off on him pounding him into the mat with a flurry of punches but he misses the dropkick as Psychosis hooked the top rope. Psychosis runs at him but right into a powerbomb! Kidman places him up top but Psychosis counters with a reverse powerbomb and he gets a near fall. Psychosis pulls him up but is whipped into the corner, Kidman runs into a boot but Psychosis runs into a powerslam. Kidman goes up top and Juve pulls out Psychosis and once the ref is distracted Chavo drills Kidman with a Tornado DDT, but the brief delay for the cover allows Kidman to barely get his shoulder up. Kidman rolls him up for two. Now the ref is distracted. Juve Driver! Psychosis briefly delays the cover and Kidman barely kicks out. Psychosis goes for the powerbomb but is facebusted. Kidman knocks the other guys off the apron and the Press connects and it is over!!
***1/2 I really enjoyed this. Makes the heels, though they were really not heels last week, look weak.
They attack to keep him from being unmasked but he is and we get a brief look before a towel is placed on him. Animals run down and clear them out. Why not wait for the PPV?
They show DDP, Luger and Sting walking down the hall giggling…..
Flair now walks. Alone.
Match 9: DDP and Lex Luger and Sting v. Ric Flair and Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan
Total Package is too hard to right all the time, so fuck it. Let’s be honest Hogan will arrive.
Sting and Flair start off and Flair is run down and then press slammed. Flair chops away and Sting screams at him but Flair runs at him and knees him in the groin and then nuts him again. Luger gets the tag and Flair off the whip stops himself and tags in Bret Hart. Luger backs off but goes for a punch only to have it blocked and Bret goes off. He decks him and now an inverted atomic drop, gut punch, Russian sweep and the elbow from the middle rope. He goes for the Sharpshooter and DDP stops that but Flair chases DDP off. DDP beats on Hart and now Sting does too, and he shoves Hart into the corner where Luger gets the tag and he stomps a hole in Bret. He pulls him up and hits him twice more until Bret fires back only to get knocked down and choked out with Luger’s boot. Luger goes for a slam but is blocked and he is rolled up and nearly pinned. Bret is grabbed and shoved into the enemy corner, and Sting gets the tag striking with a standing dropkick. Flair grabs Sting and that allows the doubleteam. Flair keeps trying to get in until he is laid out by Sting. Sting sends Hart for the ride and they clothesline each other and both are down. Bret makes the hot tag and Flair goes ape shit destroying all three heels. Sting is decked and down he goes and Flair tosses him over the top rope and runs him into the railing. Back in the ring he back suplexes him and goes for the Figure Four. Bret runs in and clears out the other two and they fight on the floor. Flair thinks better of the Figure Four but finally applies it. Liz gives Luger the bat and he goes behind Bret and chokes him out with it. Luger rolls into the ring and drives it right into Flair. DQ. David Flair runs in and gets his ass stomped.
**1/2 A decent main event. It would be nice to see Hart look stronger. But Flair was classic and got in some offense.
The back doors of the ambulance are open and Tony pisses himself. The faces are getting destroyed by the Rack and ball bat. A few Hogan chants as he limps to the ring. The heels warn Hogan too late despite Hogan being clearly visible. Hogan clears the ring after he grabs the bat.
They show Sid walking back to his car, which is gone!
*** The funny thing is that I remember most of this Nitro. I had just started watching again back in 99, I was surely drunk. Now back then I hated Goldberg and enjoyed Sid. I was glad to see Hogan despite hating him back in the early 90s. I did not really like the midcard. I was lame. Anyway, there were no really bad matches. But is Vampiro not getting a push anymore? Where is Buff going. Who is heel and face with the Revolution and Filthy Animals or are they straddling the line by being Tweeners. They do provide some entertaining matches, the sudden Rey and Dean ending sucked. Benoit had a decent match as did Goldberg and the Kidman match was fun but it should have been saved for a PPV and there is no point in demasking someone because they are not going to use Psychosis at all. It was a ploy and nothing more. The main event was solid if unspectacular. Hogan is still the main man there and they are doing everything to keep him over by him overcoming the odds etc. It is not really working anymore, and it just hurts Nitro now….He is better as a heel. The Havoc rematch does nothing for me. I am just tired of Hogan, the same thing over and over despite being a heel for three years, it just gets tiresome much like Cena. Oh well.