WCW Saturday Night 9/16/1995

Written by: Tom Hopkins

This is a real treat. The Classics.com team has decided to air WCW Saturday Night starting with this episode. I’m happy we finally have a non-WWE show airing twice a month. I’ve never actually seen an episode of this show before. They start with a weird opening of a wrestler being built cybernetically almost like the Terminator.

Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are the hosts here and we start with a clip of Nitro with Sting joining the Hulkamaniac team at War Games.

–Disco Inferno vs. Scott Armstrong–
This is Disco’s debut on WCW Saturday Night. He’s pretty over with the fans to start. Disco shoves Armstrong and turns his back to his foe. He’s dropkicked and Armstrong mocks him. Disco misses a clothesline in the corner and Armstrong slugs away at Inferno in the corner. Armstrong hiptosses Inferno before mocking him some more. Disco responds with a hiptoss of his own but he telegraphs a back drop and Armstrong is able to slug away at Disco in the corner. Disco chops the leg while the ref is pushing Armstrong out of the corner and the swinging neckbreaker ends this quickly at. Well, could they make Disco more of a Honky Tonk clone complete with the same finisher? This was a fun squash which was controlled mostly by the jobber. ¾*.

We head to Heenan and Schiavone and Heenan is disco dancin’! Mean Gene is with Disco Inferno and the fans know he’s a heel now and he’s booed loudly. Inferno says he’s from Prospect Park, Brooklyn. That’s near me! Inferno is doing the worst Saturday Night Fever impersonation I’ve seen or heard. We head to break with a little Pillman promo hyping his match with Alex Wright.

We go back to clips of Renegade beating up on some poor jobber to retain his TV Title.

–The Renegade(c) vs. Max Muscle for the TV Title–
It turns out that the jobber was Max Muscle and this is his rematch. He attacks Renegade (an Ultimate Warrior clone) upon his entrance into the ring and he hits a gutbuster over the knee. Muscle misses a move off the top so Renegade returns with two clotheslines. He tries another one but Muscle ducks and Renegade falls to the outside. Diamond Dallas Page, who Renegade will be fighting soon, runs out and hits the Diamond Cutter on the mat. Renegade is rolled back into the ring and Muscle covers for two. Renegade comes back with a powerslam and a splash off the top to end this at 1:39. This was pretty bad. DUD.

We head to break with words from Alex Wright.

–The Nasty Boys vs. Johnny Swinger & Terry Richards–
The Nasty’s are pretty popular here. Sags starts with the jobber wearing a red and black singlet. Sags sends him to the corner and delivers a follow-up clothesline. Knobbs comes in and delivers some elbowdrops and this guy is about dead now. Sags hits a legdrop and the fans show their interest by asking for Sting. Well, they were more demanding but you catch my drift. The jobber has his head rubbed into Knobbs armpit and then has Knobbs whipped into him. Richards comes in and he’s quickly clotheslined down. The Nasty Splash (Sags with a pumphandle slam and Knobbs with a second rope splash) end this at 2:43. This was your average tag team squash. ½*. I’m three matches in and I think I won’t be rating all of these matches, especially since they’re mostly squashes and there isn’t much of a different between one jobber match and another.

Mean Gene talks with the Nasty Boys and they want a title shot. We return from the break with Arn Anderson talking to Gene and Arn talks about Ric being family to him so fighting him will be one of the hardest things he’ll have to do, likening it to spanking his son. The commercial carousel continues with another Alex Wright promo.

–The Taskmaster vs. Jobber–
The Taskmaster attacks this jobber right off the back and since he’s captaining a War Games match tomorrow I am assuming that this one will be quick. Taskmaster dumps the jobber and follows with a single-leg baseball slide. Taskmaster doesn’t do much of note aside from slaps and a suplex. He sets up the jobber in a tree of woe and charges with a knee before finishing with a double stomp on the chest at 2:19. ¼*.

We head to clips from a few weeks ago where Duggan fought Big Bubba. Somehow Bubba and Duggan end up outside and Bubba runs into some weirdo with a rabbit and Bubba is affected by the rabbit because he’s allergic to it and this caused friction between the two. They fight it out in the ring and it is pretty terrible. It seems that guy is Dave Sullivan that’s causing the bunny problems. Really, allergic to a bunny? They used that gimmick to start a feud?

–Big Bubba vs. Dave Sullivan–
This match started and I didn’t even realize it. Bubba (the Big Boss Man for those who didn’t know) slaps Dave and Dave responds with weak looking punches and a terrible backdrop. Bubba ends up on the floor and he waits for Dave to turn his back so he can attack from behind. Bubba stomps away and delivers a wind-up uppercut for two. The guys call this one of their main events and I just find that sad. Bubba hits the Bubba Spike (the Boss Man Slam) and covers but Hacksaw runs out and literally throws the rabbit onto Bubba. Bubba bails and he’s counted out at 3:20. At least I think he was counted out, they didn’t actually show anything. DUD.

We get a brief rundown of last week’s Nitro (Lex joins Hogan and the Hulkamaniacs in War Games and taking the place of Vader).

–State Patrol vs. American Males–
State Patrol are two guys dressed up as two cops. I don’t even know what to say. Buff Bagwell and Scotty Riggs are the American Males and they have a rather gay video of them shirtless and staring longingly into the camera. This is their WCW debut and the ladies are fans. Riggs starts with State (with the other one being Patrol of course). Riggs armdrags State but he blocks an O’Connor roll. Buff comes in with a slingshot shoulderblock but State Patrol double teams and they hit a double bodyslam for two. Buff is shoulderblocked in the corner but ducks out of a blind charge and delivers a dropkick before going into an arm-drag arm-bar combo. Riggs comes in with an axehandle off the top. Buddy Lee (one of the State Patrol guys) clotheslines Riggs on the top rope and the other member of SP is tagged in. Lee hits an elbow from the second rope for two. Riggs takes a legdrop off the second rope for two. Riggs sneaks in a small package for two but he can’t capitalize. Riggs takes a double clothesline for one. He ducks out of a spear attempt in the corner and he’s able to escape and tag in Buff. Buff is on fire and he’s sending out clotheslines and backdrops all around. Buddy Lee takes a double dropkick to end this at 7:11. That was a long match on what’s been a squash show. The American Males weren’t all that impressive but it kept the tag formula working and it was an okay TV Match as a result. **.

We get a Tony Schiavone sit-down interview with Dusty Rhodes. Dusty talks about his busy schedule but his first love was WCW and now he’ll be co-hosting Saturday Night with Bobby Heenan and Tony.

–Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Gino Caruso–
Pittman wraps up Caruso pulling his legs upward while he’s laying chest-down on the mat. Heenan’s still pissed about Rhodes joining the announce crew. Pittman doesn’t do much during the match aside from stupid submissions that stretch out bodyparts. Pittman ends this with a headbutt and a cross-arm bar to end this at 3:49. Cobra watches this match from the back and they let these guys wrestle on PPV? Who the hell decided that? DUD.

We hear from Hogan, fresh off of riding his Harley and he talks about the War Games match, his motorcycles and whatchoogonnadobrutha?

–Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright–
It’s funny to see Pillman hugging babies on his way to ringside. The two shake hands before they start and both break clean after a lock-up. Pillman works the arm but Alex flips out of that and hiptosses Pillman and grabs his arm. Pillman snapmares out of that and he works Wright’s arm now. Wright escapes and dropkicks Pillman. Wright goes back to the arm and it sounds like some canned cheering going on since the fans are sitting on their hands right now. Pillman monkey flips Wright and dropkicks him down. Pillman grabs the arm now. Wright escapes and it’s really a stalemate right now since he goes to work on the arm. The two erupt into a slugfest (well slapfest) in the corner leading to a Pillman roll-up for two. Wright hits a spinning heel kick for two. Pillman responds with one of his own for two. Both try a dropkick at the same time and both miss leading to both being knocked out. Wright sunset flips Pillman off the top for two and hits a belly to belly for two. Wright tries a powerbomb but Pillman reverses into a bridge and Wright lifts him up at two. Wright tries a backslide but Pillman reverses to an awkward looking one of his own for the pinfall at 8:11. Johnny B. Badd makes his way to ringside to hype tomorrow’s match between the two. This was a match that really suffered from its length. The early portions would’ve meant more if the match didn’t end about 2 minutes later. It had a good build but the ending, especially with a few blown moves, made it pointless. It was still the MOTN. **1/2.

–The Bottom Line–
I am really happy this show has arrived and already you can see some differences between this and Superstars. This had your jobber matches but there were a few nice 7 to 8 minute matches thrown in to keep it interesting and I await what will come from this show. I felt it kept you apprised of what’s going on in the promotion more than 1991 Superstars did.