WCW Saturday Night 6/1/1996

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 6/1/1996
From:

Matches:
1.) WCW Television Champion Lex Luger defeated Dick Slater
2.) Booty Man defeated Mark Kyle
3.) Ric Flair & Arn Anderson defeated Scott & Steve Armstrong
4.) Kevin Sullivan defeated Alex Davis
5.) American Males defeated Pat Tanaka & Kurasawa
6.) WCW United States Champion Konnan defeated Alex Wright
7.) Prince Iaukea defeated The Gambler
8.) Diamond Dallas Page defeated Cobra
9.) Fire & Ice defeated Dave Taylor & Earl Robert Eaton
10.) Sting defeated Johnny Grunge

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Footage of Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael training for Great American Bash starts the program. They are coming for the Horsemen.

2.) Backstage, Mean Gene interviews Jimmy Hart about Great American Bash on June 16th. Hart wishes that he could take to Luger about talking sense into him. WCW World Champion The Giant enters the scene and goes over all the things he’s accomplished already in his WCW career. Giant says that Luger’s fifteen minutes of fame are coming to an end at Great American Bash. Giant considers him losing to be a fantasy and they live in a reality of him being champion.

3.) Mean Gene interviews Booty Man, who plugs Hulk Hogan’s new movie Spy Hard. Hogan only had a cameo in the film, by the way. Kimberly likes to train Booty for the ring and seemed to make sure people know she’s not in a relationship with Booty.

4.) Flair and Anderson attack the Armstrong Brothers before the bell. Anderson knee drops Scott followed by strikes in the corner. Flair tags in as Scott had a sunset flip on Anderson. Flair tosses Scott through the ropes to the floor where Woman eye raked Scott. Flair misses a hip toss and Scott almost wins with a backslide. Flair chops Scott to the mat followed by a right hand. Anderson returns to the match to stomp on Scott and catapults Scott throat first into the bottom rope. Anderson tosses Scott over the top to the floor. Flair holds Scott for Woman to eye rake Scott outside the ring. Scott fights out of the corner with right hands, but Anderson drops Scott with an atomic drop. Flair tags back in and kicks Scott in the midsection. Flair elbows a charging Scott in the corner and goes to the top rope, but Scott slams Flair off the top. Anderson drops Scott throat first over the top rope. Scott fights back with a superkick to knock Anderson off his feet. Flair and Steve are tagged in with Steve cleaning house with right hands. Steve backdrops Flair out of the corner and dropkicks both men. Anderson plants Steve with a spinebuster and Flair covers Steve with a handful of tights to win the match. (**. There was some good energy to the match and the Armstrong’s were given a moment of shine to add some interest to the match. I liked this sprint of a tag match.)

5.) Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Woman and Elizabeth. Anderson says that four would be his lucky number if he was a betting man. Anderson likes to stack the odds in their favor. Flair teases a mystery man to be in their corner at Great American Bash. Flair taunts Savage by kissing Elizabeth’s arm.

6.) Mean Gene interviews Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Hart. Hart doesn’t understand why they have to bond themselves with the Horsemen when they have the gold and people in their own group. Sullivan has honor for two people, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. Sullivan says they stood by him when he slapped Brian Pillman and got him out of here. Sullivan is going to do them a favor by squashing Chris Benoit at Great American Bash.

7.) Desperado Joe Gomez is coming soon to WCW.

8.) Konnan controls Wright with a hammerlock for a moment, but Wright breaks free with an arm drag. Wright keeps a wrist lock on the mat, but Konnan doesn’t give in. Konnan leaps off the top to arm drag Wright. Wright tosses Konnan with an overhead belly to belly suplex. They have a standoff moments later. Konnan takes Wright down to the mat locking in a leg lock, but Wright doesn’t give in. Wright counters with a leg lock of his own, but Konnan again counters with a leg lock on the mat. Konnan nails Wright with a rolling thunder clothesline. Konnan dropkicks Wright on the knee followed by a DDT for a near fall. Wright ducks a clothesline to heel kick Konnan. Wright uppercuts Konnan a few times in the corner. Wright uppercuts Konnan in the corner and continues with shoulder rams. Wright slams Konnan before heading to the apron and hitting a slingshot splash for a near fall. Wright takes Konnan over with a snap suplex and heads to the top rope hitting a double axe handle for a near fall. Wright tries for a gut wrench, but Konnan countered with a rollup for the win. (*1/2. The finish was abrupt as it felt like the match was just starting to pickup in action and pace. I wouldn’t mind seeing these two compete in a longer format of a match.)

9.) This is Prince Iaukea’s Saturday Night debut. Iaukea won following a top rope crossbody.

10.) Randy Savage is outside the venue trying to get into the building, but he’s barred from wrestling on television. Savage goes after the cameraman.

11.) Lee Marshall interviews Diamond Dallas Page after his quick victory. DDP credits his benefactor for helping him get back on track and winning the Lord of the Ring at Slamboree. Page refuses to tell Marshall who his benefactor is. Page has issued an open challenge for Great American Bash and apparently Marcus Alexander Bagwell has accepted. Page is going to hurt Bagwell real bad at the PPV.

12.) Train and Taylor kickoff the tag match with Taylor hitting uppercuts and a dropkick to knock Train down. Train knocks Taylor down with a body strike. Norton enters to hit a double shoulder block on Taylor sending him to the floor. Eaton tags into the match is met with a clothesline by Norton. Norton splashes Eaton in the corner followed by a hip toss. Eaton knee lifts Norton coming off the ropes followed by a swinging neckbreaker. Norton headbutts Eaton to the mat. Taylor tags in and uppercuts Norton, but is met with a clothesline. Train tags into the match and works over Taylor with strikes to the body. Taylor uppercuts Train and tags in Eaton. Train no sells a few strikes by Taylor. Train stomps on Taylor’s hands and Norton goes after Eaton, but Eaton hammers away on Norton. Norton chops Eaton before Taylor tags back into the match. Train hip tosses Taylor across the ring and Eaton tags back in as does Norton. Train splashes Eaton as does Norton. Train misses a splash and Taylor puts a full nelson on Train allowing Eaton to hit an axe handle off the top. Taylor accidentally axe handles Eaton allowing Train to hit a splash and pins Eaton for the win. (*1/2. The demise of Eaton in the Blue Bloods continues to progress because I’m sure the heels will somehow blame Eaton for that loss. Fire & Ice continue to entertain and are a good big man team for the division.)

13.) Grunge knee lifts Sting and delivers a shoulder block. Sting dropkicks Grunge coming off the ropes and sends Grunge to the floor. Grunge wants to shake hands with Sting, but that doesn’t look likely to happen. Grunge eye rakes Sting in the corner to keep control of the contest. Grunge kicks Sting to the apron where Rocco Rock works over Sting with strikes behind the referees back. Sting tries for a sunset flip, but Grunge blocks it and does a dance. Sting takes Grunge over for a two count and mocks Grunge. Grunge strikes Sting in the corner, but runs into a big boot. Sting elbow drops Grunge a few times. Rock chokes Sting on the apron while the referee is distracted by Luger at ringside. Grunge scoop slams Sting followed by an elbow drop for a two count. Sting rams Grunge into the corner, but Rock delivers a cheap shot. Luger finally goes after Rock on the floor, but is sent into the ring post. Rock holds Sting, but Grunge hits Rock allowing Sting to get a rollup for a two count. Sting hits the Stinger Splash and Rock accidentally senton splashes Grunge allowing Sting to win the match. After the match, Sting and Luger celebrate the victory. (*. This is a bizarre match to have on paper. The action isn’t that great and the finish just felt weird to me.)

14.) Mean Gene interviews WCW Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger regarding their title match against the Steiner Brothers on Nitro. Sting puts over Scott Steiner for being a great athlete. Sting promotes the big title match while Luger cares about the tag titles and flexing.

Final Thoughts:
I’m going to consider this a skippable episode of Saturday Night. There wasn’t really an interesting match to hold my interest and the angle advancement was lacking. A rare instance of a two hour Saturday Night being boring for me lately.

Thanks for reading.