Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 6/21/1997
From:
Matches:
1.) Harlem Heat defeated Power Company
2.) Michael Wallstreet defeated Joey Maggs
3.) Silver King & La Parka defeated Super Calo & Juventud Guerrera
4.) WCW Cruiserweight Champion Syxx defeated Chris Jericho to retain the title
5.) Giant & Lex Luger defeated Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Parka and Calo start the match until King holds Calo over the apron allowing Parka to deliver a double stomp! What the heck was that. Parka decks Guerrera with a clothesline. King drop toe holds Guerrera leading to a double kick to Guerrera’s chest and back. King holds Guerrera to allow Parka to deliver a kick to Guerrera’s chest for a two count. King powerbombs Guerrera after Parka lifted Guerrera into the air. King superkicks Guerrera after Parka sent Guerrera towards the corner. Parka plants Guerrera with a double leg slam for a two count. King holds Guerrera as Parka comes off the top, but Parka hits King with a spinning heel kick. Calo gets tagged in and cleans house on Parka and King. Calo slams Parka and drops King with a tilt a whirl backbreaker. King accidentally elbow drops Parka allowing Calo to splash onto both men. Guerrera and Calo dropkick Parka and King to the floor. Calo suicide dives onto Parka while Guerrera comes off the top onto King.
King stops Calo with a kick to breakup a cover attempt. Guerrera is stopped by the referee in the corner. Calo takes Parka off the middle rope with a hurricanrana. King nails Calo with a somersault leg drop behind the referees back. Parka is able to get the win on Calo. (***1/4. What the heck was that?! That was loads of fun and one of the best matches I’ve seen on Saturday Night in quite some time! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Parka have so much momentum with so many wins in recent memory. This likely means he’ll be losing a high profile match, but I’ll take Parka wins when I can get them.)
2.) Syxx controls Jericho with a headlock to start the title match. Jericho counters with a hammerlock for a moment. Syxx takes Jericho down to the mat with a snapmare. Syxx gets shoved by Jericho out of the corner. Syxx accidentally hits a Canadian Destroyer for a two count. Syxx decks Jericho with a standing spin kick. Syxx delivers a quick leg drop for a near fall. Syxx works over Jericho with strikes in the corner followed by a jumping spin kick. Syxx controls Jericho with a sleeper hold. Jericho hits a springboard moonsault for a near fall. Jericho connects with a vertical suplex for a two count. Jericho chops Syxx in the corner and hits the corner chest first. Syxx locks in the Buzzkill to win the match. After the match, Syxx keeps the hold locked in while the bell continues to ring. (*1/2. They didn’t get a lot of time to do anything, but I enjoyed what they put together.)
3.) Lee Marshall interviews Debra and Steve McMichael. Lee mentions that Jeff Jarrett had been getting a lot of attention by Debra. Debra admits that she made a mistake focusing a lot on Jarrett. She should have always been focusing on Mongo. Without her, Mongo didn’t achieve what he achieved in football until she came around. Mongo says that Jarrett has always been a loser and doesn’t care if Jarrett made a mistake. Mongo promises to give Jarrett a bashing at the Bash at the Beach pay per view.
4.) Luger and Bagwell start off the main event tag match. Luger runs the ropes but is met with a dropkick by Bagwell. Bagwell beats on Luger with several strikes and a scoop slam. Luger drops Bagwell to the mat with a back suplex. Bagwell eye rakes Luger before tagging in Norton. Norton chops Luger and hits a splash in the corner. Norton drives Luger down to the mat with a backbreaker for a two count. Norton focuses his attack on Luger’s lower back before tagging in Bagwell. Bagwell back elbows Luger coming off the ropes and poses for the crowd. Luger comes off the ropes to nail Bagwell with a running forearm. Norton gets tagged in and Giant gets tagged in as well. Giant drops both Norton and Bagwell with big boots. Giant gets backdropped over the top to the floor by Norton and Bagwell. Luger tries for the Torture Rack on Norton, but Bagwell makes the save. Luger clotheslines Bagwell and Giant chokeslams Norton for the win. (*. I can’t say any of this surprised me. I wasn’t expecting this to go as long as it did, though. It’s cool to see top WCW guys involved on Saturday Night. A clean finish, too!)
5.) Lee Marshall interviews Giant and Lex Luger in the ring to close the program. They’ll be wrestling Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach PPV. Luger says that Rodman and Hogan didn’t think they’d be their opponents at the PPV. Luger is counting down the time before they meet at the PPV. Giant tells Hogan this is very simple… he wants Rodman to wear a black dress for Hogan’s funeral.
Final Thoughts:
I thought this was a great episode. The tag match with the cruiserweights was really fun to watch and completely caught me off guard. A strong overall episode for Saturday Night.
Thanks for reading.