JUNE 28TH — CHICAGO, IL — UNITED CENTER
‘I WANNA BE LIKE DAVE’
CONTEXT: A black limo arrives to the United Center. Ric Flair exits along with David Flair and Uncle Bruce. David has dyed his hair blonde. Ric declares that David will win the WCW World Championship tonight. Bruce says they have been dreaming of this moment for a long time. Bruce will build a statue 10x bigger than the Michael Jordan statue.
Bob’s Take: It would be horrifying if David Flair won the WCW World Championship. Also, clearly that is going to be the main event, right? Are viewers going to stay tuned in for three hours to witness it? They are in full delusion for David, and I’m glad David dyed his hair to copy his father similar to Charles Robinson. 1 for 1
MATCH #1: CHRIS BENOIT & PERRY SATURN VS. FIT FINLAY & STEVEN REGAL
NOTE: Benoit and Saturn make their way out to new theme music and not Dean Malenko’s.
FINISH: Saturn spikes Regal with a Death Valley Driver to pickup the clean win.
Bob’s Take: A good tag match to open the show and I love Regal teaming with Finlay. WCW is shaping up to have a good tag division with depth, which is what they had when they were thriving in the past. The crowd responded well to the action and the finishing sequence was full of energy and chaos. 2 for 2
FLAIR & PIPER CHAT, VAN HAMMER WANTS A TITLE SHOT
CONTEXT: Flair tells Piper that he’s promised David Flair the WCW World Championship tonight. Arn gets Flair’s attention and it’s Van Hammer standing there. Hammer apologizes for cutting into their talk. Hammer is there asking for a title shot. Flair whispers into Piper’s ear and Piper agrees to give Hammer a title match against Steiner. Hammer appears to be fine with that offer and walks off. By the way, Charles Robinson has returned after a month off TV due to injury.
Bob’s Take: They didn’t specify which Steiner considering the brothers hold both the TV and US Championships. I’d guess it is Rick Steiner for the TV Championship since Scott hasn’t competed in a match since Slamboree. I’m not interested in Hammer getting a title shot, though. 2 for 3
MEAN GENE INTERVIEWS PIPER & FLAIR; FLAIR WANTS TO APOLOGIZE TO SAVAGE
CONTEXT: Flair tells Chicago they are lucky he’s here, a former 14x champion, considering how poorly the Blackhawks and Bulls have been performing. Piper gets a cheap pop for mentioning all the top Chicago athletes. Piper claims they have WCW on a roll and he’s out there for a reality check. Piper gives a reality check to Howard Stern for dissing him. Apparently, Stern said he’d want to get in the ring with Piper. Piper warns Stern that he’ll make him look like Fabio. Piper blames Stern for how the kids are acting nowadays. Piper announces to the live crowd that a man of morales will wrestle WCW World Champion Kevin Nash in a lumberjack match. Flair introduces the number one contender as being his son, David Flair. Flair promises that David is going to take Nash down. Charles Robinson will be the referee. Flair has to make a deal with Randy Savage. Flair wants to apologize to Savage, shake his hand and make a deal. Flair calls out Savage to join the segment.
Randy Savage, Sid and the ladies make their way down to the ring. Ric tells Savage that he knows with them on their side that they can take the WCW World Championship from Nash tonight. Flair asks them to join forces as lumberjacks tonight. Flair offers to make the elbow drop legal. Charles Robinson chimes in and reminds Ric about getting injured due to the elbow drop. Ric and Piper try to calm Robinson down and disregard his issue. Savage doesn’t care if he’s the champion or if Sid is the champion. Savage doesn’t care if David Flair wins the title tonight. Savage also doesn’t care if Sting won the title. Savage just doesn’t want the title on Nash. Sid suggests they let the madness run free. Flair and Savage shake hands to show unity. Flair says tonight people are going to chant “I want to be like Dave.” The crowd boos that.
Bob’s Take: Honestly, I liked this a lot. The deck is stacked against Nash quite a bit and it could be reasonable to suggest that David could win the title with an assist from Savage and Sid. This benefits Savage now that the elbow drop is legal again, and Nash could potentially lose the title to an easier target even though Savage says he doesn’t care about holding the title. Piper seems to be more concerned about getting the power away from Ric as it’s teased toward the end. I don’t think Piper is going to turn on Flair and align with the young kids again, but it’s worth paying attention to. 3 for 4
LODI & LENNY BACKSTAGE
CONTEXT: Lenny is applying nail polish and Lodi notes that he’s shaking. Lenny is worried about WCW finding out about them. Lodi says they aren’t the only ones in the company. Lenny notes that WCW is open-minded. Lodi tells Lenny that he’s got him and Lodi has him, babe.
Bob’s Take: Yeah, they are completely suggesting they are a couple. It’s clever without directly implying it, but that’s what they are doing. 4 for 5
MATCH #2: EDDIE GUERRERO VS. LODI
FINISH: Late in the match, Lenny begs Guerrero to not hit a frog splash. Lenny positions himself in a 69 position and Guerrero frog splashes both men. Guerrero pins Lodi for the clean win.
Bob’s Take: Sign me up for an Eddie push. People tend to forget that Eddie is a former WCW United States Champion in ’97. He’s more than capable of succeeding outside of the Cruiserweight division. 5 for 6
RIC FLAIR GOES OVER THE GAME PLAN FOR TONIGHT
CONTEXT: Ric Flair is talking with his friends to discuss the plan for tonight. Piper doesn’t think they have enough lumberjacks and thinks they need three more people. Piper suggests Bam-Bam Bigelow, DDP and Kanyon. They decide to get the Triad to assist them, as well. Ric is excited about David winning the WCW World Championship tonight.
Bob’s Take: Is Nash really about to overcome these massive odds and kill off a group six or seven heels in one night? I’m thinking Sting is going to assist, or is Goldberg returning tonight? 6 for 7
HAK CALLS OUT RIC FLAIR
CONTEXT: Hak cuts a promo saying that Ric Flair doesn’t like his style of matches and calls out Flair to confront him. Hak wants a piece of Flair for disliking hardcore matches. However, instead of Flair, WCW Tag Team Champion Bam-Bam Bigelow comes out and confronts Hak.
Bob’s Take: Apparently, Bigelow can not escape the hardcore division despite his best efforts and now being a tag champion. 6 for 8
MATCH #3: HAK VS. WCW TAG TEAM CHAMPION BAM-BAM BIGELOW
FINISH: Late in the match, Kanyon and DDP come out, but Hak hits them with kendo stick shots. DDP ends up hitting the diamond cutter and Bigelow pins Hak.
Bob’s Take: If there aren’t hardcore matches then there’s not much usage for Hak. The crowd didn’t come across as being overly interested in this match, which is something we saw on a fairly regular basis in the spring. Hak couldn’t do a clean job for the tag champion? Lets give the Triad some momentum with clean wins over guys that don’t need to be protected. 6 for 9
WCW WORLD CHAMPION KEVIN NASH PROMO
CONTEXT: Nash gets a cheap pop for reminding everyone where they are right now. Nash says he’s been an outsider since day one in WCW. Nash knows that Flair and everyone else want him to lose the title tonight. Nash knows his only friend is Scott Hall, but he’s sitting at home right now. Nash is on his own tonight. Nash is going to defend the title against everyone that wants to see him lose tonight. Nash has a stipulation for the match tonight. Nash is putting the title on the line, but if he wins then he gets Torrie Wilson for 72-hours. Nash promises that Torrie will be ruined after three days with Big Sexy.
Bob’s Take: It would be hilarious if Nash got Torrie for three days. If that happens, I’m sure Flair and his stable would go insane. David could go insane. Nash doesn’t consider Sting a friend, which is an interesting approach to go considering they are a team. I didn’t hate the promo and adds a little more interest into the main event. 7 for 10
MATCH #4: THE NWO B-TEAM (HORACE, BRIAN ADAMS, VINCENT & STEVIE RAY( VS. WEST TEXAS REDNECKS (CURT HENNIG, BARRY WINDHAM, KENDALL WINDHAM & BOBBY DUNCUM JR.)
FINISH: Late in the match, everyone begins to brawl. Kendall and Duncum hit a double bulldog on Vincent to pickup the win.
Bob’s Take: I’m not sure what the point of this match is quite honestly. The rednecks are being positioned as a heel group, and they are wrestling another heel group in the NWO. Unless they are shifting the NWO B-Team into being a face group, I’m not sure who we’re supposed to cheer for in this match. I’d assume that the Chicago crowd would probably cheer for the NWO group, but nationally I’m not sure. The action wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t invested in the action, at all. It felt like it went on a little too long, as well. 7 for 11
DANCE CONTEST BETWEEN THE CAT & DISCO INFERNO
CONTEXT: Nick Patrick is apparently hosting the contest and says the winner will be determined by crowd reaction. Cat grabs the microphone and tells the fans if they don’t vote for him then he’s going to whoop all their butts. Cat goes first and does some good dancing. Disco goes second and proceeds to do his basic disco style dancing. Cat attacks Inferno from behind.
Bob’s Take: I understand Cat is a heel, but he danced quite a bit better than Disco did. This may have been counterproductive because Disco looked kind of foolish. 7 for 12
MATCH #5: THE CAT VS. DISCO INFERNO
FINISH: Late in the match, Inferno hits the Chartbuster on Cat, but Ono gets involved. Ono ends up giving Cat the red slipper and Cat decks Inferno. Jerry Flynn comes out and kicks Cat to cause a disqualification. After the match, Flynn gets a microphone and challenges Cat to a match at Georgia Dome next week for a kickboxing match. As Flynn departs, he lets out the f-word and quickly knows he messed up, but walks backstage.
Bob’s Take: The action wasn’t too bad here. I enjoyed this more than the dance contest, that’s for sure. It’s a bit weird that they are pivoting to Cat vs. Flynn for next week. I’m assuming these guys have been keeping their feud alive on Saturday Night, but I can’t remember. Flynn cussing and making a face of regret is a funny moment. 8 for 13
MATCH #6: WCW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE TRIAD (DDP & KANYON) VS. BUFF BAGWELL & DEAN MALENKO
NOTE: Ric Flair is on commentary and says that Arn Anderson will now be the referee for the main event. Anderson tells Nash that he’s going to get a receipt for the parody of Arn from two years ago.
FINISH: Late in the match, DDP breaks a cover and knocks the referee out. Bagwell hit the Blockbuster on Kanyon, but DDP clotheslines Bagwell to the floor. Bigelow decks Malenko from behind and they hit the Greetings/Diamond Cutter combo allowing Kanyon to pin Malenko to retain the titles.
Bob’s Take: This was a good match and the crowd reacting very well to the action. Malenko doesn’t appear to be getting over in his current role, but maybe he needs a bit more time to connect. DDP and Kanyon may be one of the most underrated tag teams in terms of overall enjoyment. They work very well together and I enjoy them teaming. A much better match than I was expecting and they took advantage of the time given to them. 9 for 14
FOOTAGE OF ‘I HATE RAP’ MUSIC VIDEO
CONTEXT: We see the music video for I Hate Rap. We see the full music video.
Bob’s Take: It’s a time filler, and there’s probably no reason to see the full video since it’s just the group singing and there’s nothing of note happening in the actual music video. I’m sure we’ll see this several times over the next few weeks. 9 for 15
MATCH #7: SID VICIOUS VS. SCOTT PUTSKI
NOTE: At one point, the fans are chanting for Goldberg during the match.
FINISH: Sid plants Putski with a powerbomb to win the match cleanly. After the match, Savage promises that Nash will lose the title, but it doesn’t matter to whom. Savage hits a top rope elbow drop onto Putski.
Bob’s Take: What is going on in the booking meetings where they decide that putting Scott Putski in the third hour is a good idea? Sure, Sid is a big name and cold potentially keep viewers, but Putski? I love Sid and watching him beat up Putski was enjoyable, but it didn’t need to be a third hour bout. 10 for 16
MAIN EVENT: WCW WORLD CHAMPION KEVIN NASH VS. DAVID FLAIR — LUMBERJACK MATCH
FINISH: Nash fights the heels off and grabs Gorgeous George walking backstage. Torrie Wilson appears to now be associated with Nash. Nash kept the heels away with the taser. George screams for Savage to help her. Sting is seen sitting in a black hummer as Nash enters a limo to escape a furious Savage and Sid.
Bob’s Take: Luckily, this is hardly a singles match and is mostly Nash getting beaten up by half a dozen heels attempting to soften Nash up for David to get an easy victory. There’s one point where Nash is in the figure four, and for some reason Anderson decided to do a slow count instead of a fast count. Nash literally fights off all the heels and a taser attempt. Nash is getting the super human treatment. It’s essentially not a main event. Also, David is undefeated still so that’s probably most important. 10 for 17
I feel like the good segments or matches had much more time on the show compared to the lackluster ones, because I’m coming out of this show feeling as if I had been entertained for the most part. There was some good wrestling again on the show. The show long angle of David Flair potentially winning the title didn’t bother me too much, and I’m glad they avoided an actual match between the two. I think they handled the main event segment as best they could have done.
There’s not much hype heading into Bash At The Beach, which is now two weeks away. The main focus appears to be the mystery behind Sting and how he could possibly be the driver. I think a great reveal would be Sting, but it’s Luger wearing a Sting mask. Luger makes too much sense at this point to not be the driver of the hummer.
Next week they are in the Georgia Dome and they’re going to need a huge match to fill that place at this point. I’m not sure they have a match that could do it. Maybe they do Nash vs. Sting to try and fill it up?
The next post in this series will be comparing the Inside Wrestling Mid-Year Report for WCW ’99.
WCW Nitro 6/28 TV Rating: 3.6
Thanks for reading.