WCW Saturday Night 10/7/1995

Written by: Tom Hopkins

We take a look at Giant destroying Hogan and Hogan’s mustache is shaved off by the Taskmaster. HERESY!!!

Tony Schiavone and Dusty can’t believe what happened last week on Nitro as they begin this episode of WCW Saturday Night.

–Alex Wright vs. Ray Hudson–
Alex is pretty over with the crowd here. Wright works the arm to start and tries for a pinfall off a bodyslam. This guy’s a jobber but he won’t be pinned like that. So Wright does a Boston Crab that looks more like a Lion-Tamer and this one is over at 1:48. I love how Dusty called it a Germany Crab.

We recap Sting once again turning down Flair’s offer to team-up with him. It was on last week’s episode of Saturday Night for those who didn’t see it.

–Flyin’ Brian Pillman & Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Dirty Dick Slater–
Is this a version of the Horsemen? I know Pillman was on the team but I don’t have the years down that he was in it. Buck and Slater have Col. Parker in their corner. These guys used to be tag champs? That’s as ridiculous as the Yukon Brothers winning the WWE Titles. We have handshakes all around before the match. Slater and Buck try attacking from behind but Arn and Pillman just stare them down. So Arn attacks from behind but he’s quickly booted down. Arn recovers and sends Buck into the extended boot of Slater. Pillman comes to meet a tagged in Slater. They do some weird grappling at the turnbuckle and we turn the camera to the entryway to see Sensational Sherri walk out. Meanwhile there is a match going. Wait; no let’s look at Parker talk to Sherri instead. I spot in the background Arn backdropping Slater as Sherri demands more flowers from Parker. Considering he didn’t know she would be there that bouquet isn’t too bad. Just sayin’. Okay, so Parker’s gone from the match. Buck straps Pillman in an abdominal stretch and uses some assistance from Slater. The ref catches them and makes them break but Slater comes in and puts the move on instead. Buck looks for Parker but he can’t find him. He leaves ringside and doesn’t see Pillman reverse the abdominal stretch. Arn comes in and schoolboys Slater from behind for the pinfall at 4:35. See, Slater was looking for his teammate and was caught unaware. WCW focused solely on the angle and not on the match at all. From what we saw it sucked anyway.

We go back to this past Monday Night with Mean Gene. We look at the closing minutes of the Arn/Flair match where Pillman interferes in the match. They will have a return match this Monday in a steel cage. Gene says it “virtually guarantees no outside interference.” We’ll see about that.

–Renegade vs. Jobber–
The jobber attacks Renegade on the way in but Renegade quickly hiptosses him, powerbombs him and hits a top-rope splash for the pinfall at 0:30. Renegade looks like he almost messed up the powerslam so in this match his success to fail ratio was about 2:1.

We head to last week’s WCW Worldwide and Flair is asking Macho Man to be his teammate. Macho Man doesn’t seem too enthused with that idea.

–Meng vs. Mike Davis–
Meng destroys Davis and ends with a sleeper/nerve hold type thing after booting him down. I’m sorry; did you want a play by play for this match?

We’re with Gene-O again. Let’s go back again to last Monday night. Hogan has a bad neck but still came to work. What a trooper. Hogan is interviewed by Gene but on the way out he’s attacked by Taskmaster (standing in as a woman from the crowd) and the Giant makes his way out to inflict major damage to Hogan’s neck by trying to snap it. Taskmaster shaves off the iconic mustache of Hogan afterwards. We get another terrible promo from Taskmaster and Giant. These are worse than the Jake Roberts/Ultimate Warrior segments. Taskmaster does make a reference to Wrestlemania III and his match with the Giant.

We see the ending of Malenko and Guerrero’s match from Nitro. Their rematch is tonight and maybe it’ll be the first match tonight to get some sort of stars.

–Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero–
Guerrero starts with a side headlock takeover which Malenko quickly headscissors out of but Guerrero just as quickly kips out of it. Guerrero flips out of an arm-dragon twist and Malenko does the same thing. Malenko trips up Guerrero and Guerrero does the same and both get a one-count. The official scorer has things at even right now. Guerrero dropkicks the knee of Malenko and stretched him out with a surfboard type move but breaks so he can hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. Guerrero puts a knee to Malenko’s back as he pulls the arms back and here comes Alex Wright from the back. Guerrero hits his trademark slingshot somersault senton from the apron and that gets two. Guerrero goes to a side headlock but Malenko counters with a back suplex. Guerrero comes back with a hiptoss. Malenko tries a monkey flip but Guerrero lands on his feet. Guerrero headscissors Malenko down and Dean heads outside for a breather. Malenko comes back with a big gutbuster and he goes to a chinlock now. Malenko comes back with a back suplex but Malenko is up first and covers Guerrero for two. Malenko connects with his brainbuster suplex but that only gets two. He should’ve hooked the leg. Malenko tries his tombstone piledriver but Guerrero reverses it into one of his own. Guerrero heads upstairs and hits his frog splash for two. Eddie sets up Malenko in a submission move (hanging him over his back) and he drops him down for a pinfall attempt. We get a series of pinfall combinations for two. Guerrero is sent to the corner. Malenko charges and both end up on the outside. Guerrero gets in first and Malenko ends up on the apron. Guerrero tries to suplex him back in but Malenko reverses and Guerrero lands hard on the outside. Malenko tries a slingshot tope but Guerrero just moves out of the way. Guerrero heads upstairs and almost leaps over Malenko. It’s called a bulldog type maneuver by Schiavone. Both guys end up on the top rope and Malenko superplexes Guerrero off. Malenko lifts up Guerrero but Guerrero frees himself and sunset flips him for two. A hurricanrana for Eddie also gets two. Eddie goes for a brainbuster but Malenko frees himself, boots Eddie and drives Guerrero down with a double-underhook into a sit-down powerbomb. That’s enough for the pinfall at 14:07. That was a crazy good TV match. I don’t know if it’s the best match these two have had but it built wonderfully from the start. It kind of lost the story through all the high spots at the end (it seemed to be just about hitting moves and not wearing down an opponent) but that’s forgivable because what they did hit and I thought the ending was well done for the two competitors. ***1/2.

–Mr. Wonderful vs. Chris Kanyon–
WHO BETTER THAN KANYON? I need to buy one of those shirts. I didn’t see any on E-Bay. I love the commentary from Dusty Rhodes here about Wonderful’s entrance music. It’s from some opera singer and he thinks it is either Humperdink or Julie Andrews. Wonderful stomps a mudhole in the much bigger (height and in muscle definition) Kanyon. Wonderful controls with a wide array of punches and a terrible looking gut-wrench suplex. Kanyon blocks a blind charge with a big boot but his suplex attempt is reversed into one for Wonderful. Wonderful clotheslines Kanyon to the outside and follows with an axehandle off the apron. Wonderful brings Kanyon in and piledrives him down for the pinfall at 2:50. I love how Kanyon kicks out after Wonderful gets off of him. That was a nice touch. Dusty’s commentary on here was about ***, the match however was not. This was a better than average jobber match however.

WCW has a new superstar named Sabu. Never heard of him. We see clips of him in action and amazingly they were able to find him doing moves that he didn’t miss. Well, some of them still missed but whatever.

We look back to Johnny B. Badd’s car issues last week and DDP’s idiot sidekick (Max Muscle) reveals that they were behind the car issues. Insta-fued!!!!

–Johnny B. Badd vs. Dusty Wolfe–
We learn that Badd will get a title shot coming up at Halloween Havoc against DDP. Badd tosses out some frisbees into the crowd. This guy is really over here. Dusty is tripped down and Schiavone mentions that there is a taped wrestling program on Monday that is stale while there’s another one that is completely Live. Dusty gets a back rake in on Badd and Dusty works on the lower back of Badd. Badd comes back with an atomic drop and a knee lift. Dusty is bounced to the outside and Badd follows with a somersault plancha (Badd Moon). A slingshot legdrop from the outside ends this at 3:21. This is another above average jobber match (I usually clock those in at about ¾* for those wondering).

Badd tells DDP that money can’t buy the heart needed to defeat him. We have a quick recap of Nitro done to music. This is like something that would be on YouTube now and it is actually a bit reminiscent of ECW video recaps.

Last week on Saturday Night we look at the Hacksaw/Big Bubba match. VK Wallstreet comes out steals Hacksaw’s 2×4. Of course VK was a cheap shot at McMahon (VK = Vincent Kennedy).

–Big Bubba Rogers vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan–
So I have to suffer through these two battling again. Hacksaw has no 2×4. He asks who has his stick of wood when we all know who took it. Hell, he saw who took it. And is Hacksaw so poor he couldn’t go to the Home Depot and pick up another one? Bubba charges right away but is backdropped and Bubba bails to the outside. We take a quick break and return with Bubba on the outside. Hacksaw was a terrible wrestler but I have to say this – he was great at getting the crowd into the match. Hacksaw slugs Bubba back to the outside once Bubba finally got into the ring and the match finally started. Dusty mentions George Steinbrenner here which is tough because I’m writing this the day that George passed away. They are talking about the 1995 playoffs. The Yankees lost to the M’s which led to Buck Showalter being replaced while the Braves finally came through to beat the Indians. That was the only title of the great Braves dynasty (they were unstoppable in the 90’s for the most part). The Yanks would get a new manager in Joe Torre and the rest is history. The Yanks would win 4 of the next 5 titles to close out the 90’s. I am getting way off track here. I’m not recapping this wild action of punches and chinlocks. Bubba and Duggan brawl outside and Bubba really stomps away at the legs of Duggan. That’s a smart idea. How can he do his three point stance on one leg? Hacksaw (on one leg) bodyslams Bubba. Wallstreet comes out brandishing the 2×4 and gets on the apron. Hacksaw tapes up his fist to show he’s ready for a fight. Bubba charges from behind but Hacksaw moves and Bubba hits the 2×4. Hacksaw slugs him down and pins him at 9:04 for the victory. Wallstreet and Bubba double team Hacksaw afterwards. I can’t believe these guys got 9 minutes! Unbelievably this wasn’t completely terrible. *1/2.

We look at Hogan’s monster truck being created. Well, that’s our show! See you in two weeks!

–The Bottom Line– Wow, we got a 14-minute match and a 9-minute match. I don’t think you get that on Monday Night Raw nowadays!! This was a really decent 78-minute episode. There were 8 matches and granted 6 of them were jobber matches I thought that two of them weren’t half-bad. Throw in a 9-minute match between Bubba and Duggan that didn’t suck, a great TV match between Malenko and Guerrero and cool segments hyping the big events of the premiere shows. Honestly this gets the tag of “Good Episode” because of that Guerrero/Malenko match.