WCW Saturday Night 6/15/1996

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 6/15/1996
From:

Matches:
1.) Marcus Alexander Bagwell defeated VK Wallstreet
2.) Jim Duggan defeated The Gambler
3.) The Steiner Brothers defeated Harlem Heat
4.) Fire & Ice defeated High Voltage
5.) Diamond Dallas Page defeated Scotty Riggs by disqualification
6.) Arn Anderson defeated Brad Armstrong
7.) Lord Steven Regal defeated Johnny Wild
8.) WCW World Champion The Giant defeated Cobra, Prince Iaukea, Mark Starr & Rex King in a handicap match
9.) John Tenta defeated Top Gun
10.) WCW Television Champion Lex Luger defeated The Barbarian

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Bagwell has the crowd behind him as Wallstreet takes Bagwell down with a fireman’s carry in the opening moment of the match. Wallstreet slams Bagwell and taunts the crowd. Wallstreet eye rakes Bagwell and delivers a few strikes. Bagwell hip tosses Wallstreet, but is kicked away. Wallstreet slams Bagwell, but Bagwell battles back with a couple of dropkicks to send Wallstreet to the floor. Bagwell leg drops Wallstreet on the arm and delivers a few elbow strikes to the shoulder. Bagwell hammers away on Wallstreet but misses a crossbody off the middle rope. Wallstreet clotheslines Bagwell for a two count. Wallstreet sends Bagwell to the floor to maintain control of the bout. Bagwell elbows Wallstreet and rams VK into the corner face first. Bagwell clotheslines Wallstreet a few times. Wallstreet hits the Stock Market Crash, but doesn’t go for a cover. Bagwell counters a second attempt and rolls Wallstreet up for the win. (*. A basic match, but I’m not sure how Bagwell benefits from this win. Wallstreet had him beat but decided against winning and Bagwell pulled out a fluke win with a rollup. Considering Bagwell has a PPV match tomorrow night, I feel that dominating win for Bagwell would have been better.)

2.) Lee Marshall interviews Marcus Alexander Bagwell, who says he forgot how it felt to be a singles wrestler. Bagwell is going to bring DDP down a few clouds at the PPV. Scotty Riggs chimes in and would love for Bagwell to win the Lord of the Ring. Diamond Dallas Page enters the scene and calls Riggs a fry boy. Page dismisses Bagwell as a challenge before walking off. Bagwell says he younger and faster and he’s going to win the ring tomorrow night.

3.) Fire & Ice had a pre-tape during the Steiner’s/Harlem Heat match. Norton says they are not a stepping stone to the tag titles. It’s going to hurt tomorrow night at the GAB.

4.) Scott and Booker kickoff the tag match with Booker avoiding a hip toss and delivering a strike. Scott tosses Booker with an overhead belly to belly suplex. Rick and Ray trade right hands with Ray getting the advantage. Ray nails Rick with a bicycle kick to the jaw. Ray forearms Rick in the corner a few times. Rick is met with a clothesline off the ropes. Rick takes Ray over with a German suplex and a clothesline for a two count. Booker nails Scott with a leaping sidekick to the face. Scott boots Booker in the corner followed by a clothesline. Ray knee lifts Scott from the apron and Booker delivers a leaping kick to the face. Scott is taken over with a double vertical suplex for a near fall. Booker plants Scott with a side slam and leaps off the middle rope missing a splash. Rick tags in and hammers away on Booker followed by a backdrop. Rick clotheslines Booker for a two count. Scott decks Ray while Rick has an inside cradle on Booker. Ray rolls Booker onto Rick, but Scott switches it again and Rick pins Booker for the win. (*1/2. The finish is dumb and not very creative. I guess that should be expected on Saturday Night. This is a big match to have casually on the undercard.)

5.) Norton knee lifts Kaos and hits a Samoan Drop as Kaos comes off the ropes. Norton shoulder blocks Kaos, but Rage hits a top rope shoulder block. Norton catches Kaos on a springboard attempt managing to hit a powerslam. Train tags in and locks up with Rage. Train shoulder blocks Rage and takes Rage over with an overhead throw. Train decks Rags with a running clothesline and tags in Norton. Train tosses Rage with a gut wrench suplex. Norton drives Rage down with a shoulder breaker and Train hits a middle rope splash for the win. (*1/2. Fire & Ice just clubbing tag teams with power strikes and their finishing move could be a lot of fun as they get built a up a little bit more.)

6.) Mean Gene interviews Steve McMichael and Debra McMichael. Debra tried to do the right thing and found out the kind of animals the Horsemen are. Steve kicks the door and says they’ve gone too far. McMichael is fed up with these guys. McMichael promises that everyone will get what they want out of the match tomorrow night.

7.) Diamond Dallas Page is originally scheduled to wrestle Steve Doll, but Scotty Riggs comes out and switches places with Doll, which Page doesn’t realize.

8.) Riggs sneaks up behind Page and hammers away on DDP with right hands. Riggs kicks Page in the gut followed by a knee lift. Riggs hip tosses Page and takes DDP over with an arm drag. Page bails to the floor to regroup for a few moments. Riggs controls DDP with a test of strength and leaps off the top to arm drag DDP followed by a dropkick to send DDP to the floor. DDP shakes the ropes to crotch Riggs on the top rope. DDP grabs Riggs and hits a diamond cutter off the top rope. DDP stomps on Riggs until Bagwell slides into the ring and chases DDP away. DDP wins by disqualification. (*. The vibe of DDP has really changed since his makeover and it’s kind of amazing how much he’s coming across better off that simple makeover segment. Riggs did some stuff here that I wasn’t expecting, most notably the lucha style arm drag off the top rope. As a segment, I enjoyed this.)

9.) Anderson shakes hands with Armstrong, which was kind of surprising. Anderson yanks Armstrong down by his hair after a lockup. They counter each other on the mat briefly until Armstrong decks Anderson with a right hand to the mat. Anderson tries to get out of a headlock and settles for a forearm to the midsection and a few strikes to the back. Armstrong rubs Anderson’s eyes over the top rope and connects with a dropkick for a near fall. Armstrong knee lifts Anderson for a near fall. Armstrong scoop slams Anderson and heads to the top rope. Armstrong hits a flying a crossbody for a two count. Anderson plants Armstrong with a spinebuster to win the match. (*1/2. A quick match, but they kept it moving and it was an enjoyable extended squash.)

10.) Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Woman and Elizabeth. Anderson says that Mongo and Greene have the tools to do what they do, but they are unchecked and that will lead to chaos. Anderson says that fatigued makes them all cowards. Anderson suggests they could get hurt real bad in their ring. Flair chimes in and says that Debra McMichael could open her eyes and see the diamond and glitz. Flair says that Debra needs to have that lifestyle that Elizabeth lives. Heenan admits he was nervous about Randy Savage before, but he’s not anymore. Heenan knows that Savage will not outsmart him and the football players will end up in the hospital at the end of the night.

11.) Mean Gene interviews Lord Steven Regal prior to his upcoming match. Regal insults fans for not knowing who their fathers are in most cases. Footage from June 2nd Main Event is shown where Regal backhanded Sting. Sting responded with a backhand on June 10th Nitro. Regal says that Sting lowered the standards of his American friends. Regal slapped Sting right in front of him and he’s going to tear his face of his bloody head tomorrow night.

12.) Backstage, Mean Gene interviews Sting. Sting loves to replay the backhanded slap by Regal. Sting would rather have his teeth knocked down his throat than have Regal backhand him. Sting says that Regal gives WCW a bad name. Sting has Regal’s number and he’s coming for him.

13.) Mean Gene interviews WCW World Champion The Giant and Jimmy Hart. Hart says that Lex Luger will find out that Giant is invincible. Giant doesn’t think that Luger has a chance against him tomorrow night. Giant believes that Luger is playing right into his hands. Giant says Luger will see what he’s all about and the chokeslam will prevail.

14.) Luger sends Barbarian into the ropes and is met with a shoulder block. Barbarian taunts the fans. Luger tries for a shoulder block, but Barbarian doesn’t go down. Luger clotheslines Barbarian over the top to the floor. Barbarian works over Luger with strikes, but Luger gets a sunset flip for a two count. Luger almost wins with an inside cradle. Barbarian powerbombs Luger in the middle of the ring. Barbarian taunts the crowd instead of following up on the advantage. Barbarian sits Luger on the top rope. Luger shoves Barbarian off the middle rope and hits a flying forearm smash. Luger powerslams Barbarian and signals for the Torture Rack. Luger is stopped by a strike to the face. Barbarian sits Luger on the top turnbuckle. Barbarian hits an overhead belly to belly suplex off the top rope! Barbarian misses a top rope diving headbutt. Luger gets up and locks in the Torture Rack to win the match. (*1/2. What the hell is Luger doing taking a top rope overhead belly to belly suplex?! That spot alone bumped this up. I actually found myself enjoying this one and the crowd was amped for it. Luger is far more over as a babyface than I realized.)

15.) The show ends with a Lex Luger sit down one on one interview. Luger has seen Giant go through every competitor in WCW in a rampage. Luger puts over the chokeslam as being thrown off a second story building. Luger feels like he’s in his prime right now. Luger wants all the championships in WCW. Luger wants to be the World, TV and Tag Champion for the first time in WCW history.

Final Thoughts:
The go-home show for GAB didn’t provide more excitement for the show, for the most part. They promoted the right matches for the PPV to give some added promotion, but action wise this was lacking.

Thanks for reading.