WCW Saturday Night 2/17/1996

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 2/17/1996
From: Atlanta, GA

Matches:
1.) American Males defeated Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker & Lt. James Earl
2.) Belfast Bruiser defeated Brad Armstrong by disqualification
3.) Men at Work defeated Scott & Steve Armstrong
4.)Diamond Dallas Page defeated Mike Winner
5.)WCW Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger defeated Dave Taylor & Bobby Eaton
6.) Chris Benoit defeated Joey Maggs
7.) Pubic Enemy defeated Buck Quartermaine & Larry Santo
8.) Kevin Sullivan defeated Todd Morton
9.)Alex Wright defeated Dusty Wolfe
10.) WCW World Champion Ric Flair & Arn Anderson defeated Nasty Boys

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) This is Brad Armstrong’s return to WCW following his brief run in SMW in 1995. SMW closed in November.

2.) Lord Steven Regal cut a promo before the Bruiser/Armstrong match. Regal says that Bruiser’s people clean up after him and says that Ireland will never be on the same level as England. Regal promises to destroy Bruiser.

3.) Bruiser controls Armstrong with a headlock to kickoff the match. Bruiser drops Armstrong with an uppercut and misses a spear in the corner hitting the turnbuckle. Bruiser leaps off the top and is met with a boot to the face. Armstrong knee lifts and dropkicks Bruiser to the floor. Bruiser controls Armstrong with a nerve hold and an elbow strike to the face. Bruiser leg sweeps Armstrong to the mat and keeps a leg lock on Armstrong. Armstrong flips Bruiser to get out of a leg lock. Bruiser yanks Armstrong down by his hair and gets a two count. They shove each other until Armstrong delivers a few forearms in the corner. Bruiser boots a charging Armstrong in the corner. Bruiser dives a knee onto Armstrong for a near fall. Bruiser drops Armstrong chest first over the apron followed by an elbow strike. Armstrong rams Bruiser into the corner face first and drops Bruiser chest first over the apron followed by a forearm strike of his own. Armstrong hits a top rope crossbody for a two count. Armstrong plants Bruiser with a back suplex for a near fall. Bruiser connects with a leaping high knee strike. Bobby Eaton runs into the ring and tries to attack, but Bruiser takes care of Eaton with a shoulder strike. Dave Taylor runs in as well, but gets taken care of. Lord Steven Regal runs out, but runs away. (**. A decent match between these two guys with the finish continuing the issues between Bruiser and Regal. I’m enjoying Bruiser as his style comes across believable. It’s good to see Armstrong back in the company, as well.)

4.) Men at Work are mad that they got their coffee break interrupted.

5.) Men at Work attack before the bell, but the Armstrong’s send them into each other. Armstrong’s double dropkick Starr into Kanyon and they fall to the floor. Scott and Kanyon legally start the tag match. They trade a few wrist locks until Kanyon gets out of a hammerlock. Scott atomic drops both men and they fall to the floor. Scott arm drags Starr and Steve tags in to keep control with a few arm drags. Starr knee strikes Steve against the ropes a few times. Steve decks Starr with a clothesline, but Kanyon breaks the cover. Kanyon knocks Scott off the apron. Kanyon plants Steve with a swinging neckbreaker while the referee is distracted. Starr drives Steve down to the mat with a shoulder breaker. Kanyon keeps a chin lock on Steve to maintain control of the contest. Steve hits a crossbody on both men and tags in Scott. Scott cleans house with right hands. Scott superkicks Kanyon and Steve heads to the top to dropkick Starr as he was being held by Scott. Kanyon stops the cover with an elbow drop on Steve. Steve is on Kanyon’s shoulders and Starr hits a bulldog. Starr kicks Scott from the apron and Kanyon hits a fisherman suplex for the win. (**. I dig the Men at Work team and think they’d be a worthwhile addition to the tag division on Nitro. Their offense is fresh and high impact. If they continue to build them up and maybe adjust the gimmick a little bit, I could see them being a competitive tag team.)

6.) Backstage, Mean Gene is with Jimmy Hart and Loch Ness. Hart says that Kevin Sullivan went to Europe and brought back a big surprise. Hart says that Hulk Hogan is nothing without him. Ness says that Sullivan called him and said that he was the only man to solve the problem that Sullivan had. Ness has come to WCW to solve the problem, who is dressed in red and yellow. Ness asks what Hogan will do when 700lbs falls onto him. Hart says that Hogan can run and hide, but Ness will find him. Ness promises he will break every bone in Hogan’s body.

7.) During Diamond Dallas Pages’ entrance he gets confronted by a collector who is there to repossess his ring jacket worth 15k. He says that DDP’s credit card was cancelled. Page can either give up the ring jacket or go to jail. Page has to give up his vest, as well.

8.) Taylor and Sting kickoff the tag match with Taylor controlling Sting with a front face lock. Sting takes Taylor down to keep wrist control. Taylor trips Sting and gets a leg lock on Sting for a moment. Taylor continues with an uppercut to back Sting into a corner. Eaton tags in and Sting hip tosses Eaton followed by a dropkick. Luger decks Eaton from the apron. Eaton retreats to his corner. Luger tags into the match and beats on Taylor by rubbing his eyes over the top rope. Luger continues with a clothesline and a vertical suplex for a two count. Eaton holds Luger on the apron and Taylor knocks Luger to the floor. Eaton plants Luger with a swinging neckbreaker. Regal gets a few cheap shots in as the referee was distracted. Eaton is sent into the ropes and met with a forearm smash by Luger. Sting backdrops Eaton coming off the ropes and rams Eaton into the corner. All four men are in the ring as Regal held Sting’s boot down and Eaton nearly pinned Sting. Taylor sends Sting into Luger and Luger falls to the floor. Eaton comes off the top hitting Taylor with a missile dropkick. Sting nearly pins Eaton. Luger powerslams Eaton and Taylor is clotheslined to the floor. Sting locks in the Scorpion death lock and Eaton submits. (**. I enjoyed this match as there were a few times that the Blue Bloods nearly won the titles. They kept a good pace and it held my interest. A fun undercard tag match.)

9.) Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan cut a promo behind a cage. Hogan talks about how the Mega Powers could have exploded, but they’ve been put into a jail cell to cool down. Hogan is mad that Savage got screwed out of the WCW World Championship. Savage is pissed that he got stabbed in the back by Elizabeth. Savage says they are not going to take a chill pill. Hogan says that on Nitro it’s going to be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Hogan thinks that Savage will regain the title on Nitro. Savage assures Hogan they will divide and conquer on Nitro. Hogan will take care of Anderson and Savage focuses on Flair. Hogan says it’s no more mister nice guy.

10.) Mean Gene interviews WCW World Champion Ric Flair and Arn Anderson with Woman and Elizabeth. Anderson says that they are royalty for what they did to Hulk Hogan. Anderson notes that Hogan has been defeated a handful of times and promises that the Nasty Boys will find out why the girls hangout with men like them tonight. Flair wants people looking for role models to open their eyes and see them dominating the wrestling world. Flair asks the last time Gene felt the feelings from a woman. Flair brags about Elizabeth having half of everything that Savage owns. Flair says that she came to him to be with the best and not for the money.

11.) Flair and Knobbs start the tag main event with Flair being sent into the corner and flips to the apron. Sags delivers a shot and they double team Flair with strikes. Knobbs decks Flair several times but runs into a back elbow. Sags tags in and leg drops Flair after a drop toe hold by Knobbs. Flair begs off and is driven down to the mat face first. Flair eye rakes Sags and Anderson drops Sags over the top rope. Sags clotheslines Flair to the floor. Anderson decks Sags from behind and rolls Sags back into the ring. Sags rams Anderson down to the mat face first. Sags signals for pity city and Anderson gets a face full of Knobbs pit. Anderson delivers a few strikes to Knobbs against the ropes. Flair continues to hammer away on Knobbs to keep control of the match. Flair jabs Knobbs several times in the corner and boots a charging Knobbs. Flair heads to the top rope, but Knobbs slams Flair to the mat. Flair flops to the mat and manages to tag in Anderson. Sags tags in as well and pummels Anderson with strikes and a backdrop. Sags hits a running clothesline in the corner. Flair chops Sags a few times and Sags backdrops Flair followed by a clothesline. Sags plants Flair with a pump handle slam and Knobbs hit a splash. Woman hits Knobbs with a high heel shoe allowing Anderson to plant Knobbs with a DDT and Flair pins Knobbs for the win. (**. A fine main event with the expected outcome. I don’t know if protecting the Nasty Boys over the World Champion is needed here, but they are continuing the angle of using the high heel shoe to win matches. So, I guess it’s not a big deal.)

Final Thoughts:
All the feature matches delivered some quality action and the show had a good flow to it since there wasn’t constant promos or anything. I’d say this was a solid week of TV.

Thanks for reading.