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December Wrestling Thread | Rest In Peace Brodie Lee | Happy New Year | JOTM Bruce Mitchell
- Thread in 'General' Thread starter Started by JCMojica24,
- Start date
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25 years ago almost to the day.Crying about booking decisions from 30 years ago
I’m passionate about my bookings. THAT’S why I’m the greatest GM of all time.
Follow your passion
danger style
and you too can make it to the top 1%
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Benoit and Pillman weren’t doing much as singles wrestlers. They should have been paired into a tag team to spice up that division.
Who the hell were the Super Assassins? Juiced up WWF rejects?
Hogan doesn’t sell anything not even for Flair. The match was going well until The turn and then the no decision ending. WCW main events always ended in a no decision. I’d like to see a statistics chart for WCE year by year like the one that was done for A&W.
bonus: who was that sexy chick in the leather jacket
Who the hell were the Super Assassins? Juiced up WWF rejects?
Hogan doesn’t sell anything not even for Flair. The match was going well until The turn and then the no decision ending. WCW main events always ended in a no decision. I’d like to see a statistics chart for WCE year by year like the one that was done for A&W.
bonus: who was that sexy chick in the leather jacket
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He Oversold that arm injury. It’s now carrying over into the following year
Haha this was the stand out moment from this episode
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Titus is too damn big to be a career jobber.
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Peep Game
noblekane
ihust1e
Canadian Destroyer
@ITO
degenerate423
Case
King of Trash Style
JCMojica24
Singles Match
Arn Anderson vs. Randy Savage
Damn Arn was killing Macho Man here, of course we knew he wasn’t going to win the match but he really made Macho Man feel everything. Beautiful DDT from AA. His > Jake’s
Singles Match
Chris Benoit vs. Lord Steven Regal (w/Jeeves)
Hard hitting matchup here. The finish was weird but it made sense. Good point made here that those high risk moves are exactly that, High Risk. That German suplex Benoit his Regal was vicious. Whole lot of Horseman during this first part of Nitro.
Post-Match: Pillman was going crazy man with calling Benoit and AA out like that. Arn had to put him in his place as usual.
Tag Team Match
Lex Luger & Sting vs. The Super Assassins (Super Assassin #1 & Super Assassin #2) (w/Col. Robert Parker)
Super Assassins controlled most of this match as Sting and Luger were trying to figure each other out. Did you see the fans react to the Scorpion Deathlock and the Torture Rack? You just don’t see that in 2020 man.
WCW World Heavyweight Title Match
Ric Flair (c) vs. Hulk Hogan
@ITO , Look at Flair’s boots .
@ Hogan snitching to the ref that AA had the international object. Hogan was SO got damn corny man, my god. It is amazing he got away with this nonsense for so long. The fans were eating it up though. Damn Zodiac got too much camera time this week too.
OK show. Nothing special.
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Duh we don't see IT in 2020 cuz we're in a pandemic Jemele.
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Meltzer's Review of Starrcade 1995
@ The US Title situation AFTER the cardAs with last year, Starrcade sold out the 8,200-seat arena roughly one hour before show time, with 6,018 paying $83,855.
Flair won what was billed as his record setting 12th world heavyweight title (at the very least the real number is 14) beating Savage due to interference and distractions from three wrestlers--Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Benoit, and one manager, Jimmy Hart, while a befuddled referee had to pretend to not be able to see what was right in front of his eyes and or hear ring noise or crowd noise. As matches go where American versions of a major world title changes hands, this was among the worst in recent years, with one of the worst finishes.
Although the wrestling was weak in three of the final four matches and the announcing was awful, it couldn't damper a strong undercard and probably WCW's best PPV show overall of the year. I really felt sorry for Tony Schiavone because it appeared from the early matches that he had done his preparation and basically was shouted down by Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan from the get go and it seemed after the third match when they started making fun of him, he simply quit. This left them to ignore all the moves and psychology for the rest of the show and in particular, in the Sting-Kensuke Sasaki match, they totally butchered the match and viewers weren't explained what the two were attempting to do with it which is too bad because they had a good match although most of the key points were kept secret.
A. In a match that started at 6 p.m. (it was announced on television and in all ads that the show was beginning at 6:30 p.m. which pissed a lot of fans off), Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenberg) pinned Dave Sullivan (Bill Dannenhauser). *
B. American Males (Marcus Bagwell & Scotty Riggs aka Scott Antol) beat The Blue Bloods (Steve Regal aka Darren Mathews & Bobby Eaton) when Riggs pinned Eaton. Much worse than you'd think with Eaton really looking bad. 1/2*
1. Jushin Liger (Keiichi Yamada) pinned Chris Benoit in 10:29. While not at the level of most of their matches in Japan, this was an excellent opener with stiff action and great moves back-and-forth. Liger played subtle heel. Liger doesn't fly like he did before he broke his ankle, but is still one of the best mat wrestlers around. They traded great near falls with Benoit using his killer power bomb followed by a head-butt off the top rope when Kevin Sullivan came to ringside. He distracted Benoit, allowing Liger to hit a sloppy huracanrana for the pin. ****
2. Koji Kanemoto pinned Alex Wright in 11:44 by dropping his face on the top turnbuckle (the old Vinnie Vegas snake eyes) followed by a jackknife (well, that is the name for it) cradle. Fans were chanting "USA' which is hilarious considering what country Wright is from. Kanemoto put on a wrestling clinic here, particularly some of the fastest toe holds (both a spinning drop toe hold and an incredibly fast spinning toe hold) seem since the days of Satoru Sayama. Wright used some nice flying head scissors and a dive over the top. After a slow period, Kanemoto unleashed some great kicks and a plancha. Kanemoto took over and hit the moonsault but pulled Wright up. Wright came back with several near falls and the two then traded big moves and near falls until the finish. For his age, Wright has turned into a great performer and Kanemoto has improved tremendously in being able to carry a match over the past year. ***3/4
3. Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) beat Masa Chono in 6:41 via submission with the torture rack. The crowd was really into Luger as a face. I think the reason the heel turn didn't work was because he turned on Hogan, who most fans don't like, and Savage, who most fans associate with Hogan and thus also don't really like. Not nearly as bad as I expected. Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan were making fun of Tony Schiavone as the two were doing their finish. *1/4
4. Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero) beat Masa Saito via DQ in 5:52. Diamond Doll came out as a WWF Sunny knockoff doing gymnastic routines out of fitness pageants (which she competes in). She got into a lame put-down battle with Sonny Onno which ended up doing her no favors. Onno, who was at ringside for every Japanese match, interfered freely in this one. The styles clashed as Badd is a high spot wrestler and Saito, at 53, is pretty much washed up relying on facial expressions and at that age after 30 years in pro wrestling, obviously isn't fond of taking big bumps. They chopped each other hard but Saito doesn't sell well which exposed Badd's weaknesses. They did a lame over-the-top DQ finish which made no sense, as why couldn't Saito do the job as it's not as if he's a key performer in New Japan today? After the match, Badd went to do a somersault plancha, but Saito was totally out of position and didn't seem to have a clue it was coming and Badd hit an airball, although didn't appear to be injured. 1/2*
5. Shinjiro Otani pinned Eddie Guerrero in 13:43 of the match of the show. They started slow. Otani (spelled Ootani with a first name in the pre-match graphic but the announcers didn't ever say it) left people's jaws hanging with his springboard dropkick, springboard plancha and springboard spin kick and pretty much from a performance standpoint stole the show. Guerrero came back with a Frankensteiner off the top and a BT bomb for near falls. The best subtle maneuver of the show was Otani dropping down and doing the Oleg Taktarov heel hold, the whole psychology of which was naturally lost on everyone except Guerrero who sold it great before making the ropes. Otani wound up with a bloody nose and mouth, but came back with a springboard dropkick off the top rope to the back of Guerrero's head which even brought Rhodes into the match. After a series of cradles reminiscent of Guerrero's matches with Dean Malenko, Otani wound up on top for the three count. I'm told that most fans live expected Otani to win because they knew it had to end up 4-3 and knew that neither Savage nor Sting were going to do the job. ****1/4
6. Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan (Hiro Yamamoto) in 6:55 with the elbow off the top rope. Either Savage's back and arm injuries are so bad which makes him so limited, in which case he needs to take time off to heal because he's doing nobody any good this way, or he needs to get out because he didn't do a thing and had a 24-year-old guy with limited experience carry the match for him. Fortunately Tenzan (spelled Tensan and nobody knew or cared about his first name) did a much better job than you'd think under the circumstances, even letting Savage kick out from both his mountain bomb (of course the announcers had no clue) and head-butt off the top rope finishers before missing a moonsault. Savage did one sloppy move that Tenzan had to sell for way too long while he climbed for the winning elbow. 3/4*
7. Sting (Steve Borden) made Kensuke Sasaki submit to the scorpion in 6:52 to win the World Cup by a 4-3 margin. Sasaki hit his Northern Lights bomb finisher (of course the announcers had no clue) and Power strangle (of course no clue despite him using this as a finisher on every television match). Sasaki let Sting get out of his two finishers and the announcers just babbled, missing the entire point of the match. Then he used his reverse ipponzei finisher, which Schiavone called an armdrag take-down. He went for a scorpion but Sting powered out. Sting made a big comeback with a clothesline and facebuster before winning via submission with a scorpion. ***
After this came the presentation for WCW winning the World Cup. All the wrestlers in the previous match except Savage came out, with nobody explaining why Savage was there. Benoit was there and looked like he had no clue what he was supposed to be doing since he's a heel from Canada out there as part of Team America during an American flag waving ceremony.
8. Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr) won the triangle match over Sting & Lex Luger in 28:03. The rules of the match are that the person who scores the first pin or submission regardless of over who is awarded the win, which is a rule that is lame to begin with because it would make no sense for anyone to ever tag out. Schiavone even made that point. Flair's presence heated the crowd, but in most ways this match was a total disaster. Way too long and boring with a horrible finish and a dead crowd for the last 10:00. Flair started with Sting for 10:30 and they the same spots you've seen a million times between the two which are always good. It got good heat and was good action although nothing close to the level they were at in Norfolk. The only key spot was when Sting had Flair pinned, Luger ran in to make the save for Flair against his "best friend" because if Sting had won, Luger would be denied getting the title shot. Then Luger tagged in, so Flair wrestled Luger for 7:25 and carried him to an acceptable portion of a match in which Flair put Luger in position to be a total face although he crowd was split. Then, after months of build-up of what will happen with Sting vs. Luger and 18:00 of anticipation here, Flair tagged Sting. The two shook hands. The fans booed. The two started talking and the fans went to sleep. The match 10:08 with little heat. The key spot was Luger doing a blatant low blow on his "best friend." Finally Sting made a comeback doing the Stinger splash, but missed a second attempt, and Luger put him in the rack. As this happened, lo and behold, Sting's legs knocked out the ref. Flair then clipped Luger in the knee and he tumbled out of the ring. Flair then threw Sting over the top rope. When the ref revived, he counted both out of the ring and awarded Flair the victory. Even though Flair was the lone person playing heel in this match and the finish was the ultimate lame screw-job, there was a huge babyface pop for the finish. Jimmy Hart, who was Luger's manager against Chono, but not in this match (those coherent WCW storylines strike again), then came out to congratulate Flair for basically screwing the guy he managed. *1/2
9. Flair beat Savage in 8:41 to win the WCW title. Hart was in Flair's corner which makes sense since Hart is with Luger, who is feuding with Flair and was screwed by Flair, and the Dungeon of Doom, who hate the Four Horseman. I think they just needed someone who wouldn't screw up in distracting the ref while three guys did a run-in as that was the lame idea for a finish, perhaps to protect or pacify Savage while he dropped the strap. Paul Orndorff came to ringside at one point wearing a neck brace just to keep that angle in people's heads. Savage didn't do much I guess because he's limited by his physical condition, but Flair worked well enough to make it watchable. Flair is like watching the old knuckleball pitcher who can still fool the batters, in this case he knows all the tricks of working the crowd, but in performance, seeing Flair do his routine after all the young fireballers that worked underneath was anti-climactic even if his name and presence are such that the crowd gets into him. This was a nothing match except for the title changing. Hart distracted the ref and Flair went to use the megaphone. Savage got it away from him and used it, and Flair juiced heavily. Savage then hit the elbow off the top, but Hart distracted the ref so he couldn't count the fall. At this point, Benoit and Brian Pillman hit the ring and Savage took care of them as well. Then Arn Anderson hit the ref and KO'd Savage with an object while Benoit, Pillman and Hart distracted the ref. Flair got the pin and after all that, got the biggest babyface pop of the show. After the match the Horseman, in particular Pillman, continued to destroy Savage with Pillman whipping him with the title belt and spitting right on the camera lens, and left the ring to loud cheers. *1/2
C. If that wasn't bizarre enough, the final match took the cake as Kensuke Sasaki retained the U.S. title, or lost it, to One Man Gang (George Gray) in an unannounced match. The storyline was that Sasaki wouldn't defend the title in the U.S. which is why the Sting match was made non-title after previously being for the title. So it makes perfect sense that he works as a heel underneath, then as a babyface here, defends the title in an unannounced match for no reason when the announced title match is made non-title because he refused to defend the title in the United States (Nashville must be like parts of California which go from being part of the U.S. to being considered by many as a foreign country depending upon who is in the ring at that particular moment). So this finish where the title changed hands should also make perfect sense. This match was said to have been far worse than anything else on the show. Gang used the 747 splash and the ref counted the pin, however Sasaki kicked out just before the three count. Gang grabbed the belt and raised his own arm. The ref took the belt from Gang and re-started the match, and Sasaki came back and pinned Gang and was announced as the winner and left with the belt. However, we were told Gang won the title in this match and that the match finish where Sasaki got the three count and was announced as the winner and left with the belt was done to pacify the Japanese because Sasaki is a big star in Japan and losing this match would mean he lost two matches on the same show, one of which was to a bum. The thing about him losing the title is explained that nobody in Japan (or the U.S. for that matter) cares about the U.S. title to begin with so I guess in Japan they'll just ignore he had the belt or make up their own storyline of him vacating the belt while in the U.S. they can re-edit the footage of this match and claim Gang beat him for the title. This was taped and the belief is that they'll simply cut off the tape with Gang holding the belt if it airs on television. Gang is listed as U.S. champion and scheduled to defend the title against Konnan on the 2/11 PPV show from St. Petersburg. DUD
Other show notes: WCW officials were so happy with the undercard that Sonny Onno (Eric Bischoff's Japanese liaison) and Masa Saito negotiated the next day and came to an agreement to use Japanese talent more often on PPVs in 1996 and also to do a World Cup again next year.
At the entrances, there were signs saying that all signs were going to be confiscated, although they did allow people with Pro-Hogan signs in. Some fans managed to sneak their Pro-Flair signs into the building.
Akira Hokuto was at the show with a camcorder taping the matches.
They passed out Hogan merchandise to the fans near ringside. The Hogan lookalike fan, who is a guy originally from Detroit who moved to Atlanta and calls himself Roddy Hogan, was moved around by WCW officials several times before the show as they wanted him in a position to be on camera as much as possible.
Flair won what was billed as his record setting 12th world heavyweight title (at the very least the real number is 14) beating Savage due to interference and distractions from three wrestlers--Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Benoit, and one manager, Jimmy Hart, while a befuddled referee had to pretend to not be able to see what was right in front of his eyes and or hear ring noise or crowd noise. As matches go where American versions of a major world title changes hands, this was among the worst in recent years, with one of the worst finishes.
Although the wrestling was weak in three of the final four matches and the announcing was awful, it couldn't damper a strong undercard and probably WCW's best PPV show overall of the year. I really felt sorry for Tony Schiavone because it appeared from the early matches that he had done his preparation and basically was shouted down by Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan from the get go and it seemed after the third match when they started making fun of him, he simply quit. This left them to ignore all the moves and psychology for the rest of the show and in particular, in the Sting-Kensuke Sasaki match, they totally butchered the match and viewers weren't explained what the two were attempting to do with it which is too bad because they had a good match although most of the key points were kept secret.
A. In a match that started at 6 p.m. (it was announced on television and in all ads that the show was beginning at 6:30 p.m. which pissed a lot of fans off), Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenberg) pinned Dave Sullivan (Bill Dannenhauser). *
B. American Males (Marcus Bagwell & Scotty Riggs aka Scott Antol) beat The Blue Bloods (Steve Regal aka Darren Mathews & Bobby Eaton) when Riggs pinned Eaton. Much worse than you'd think with Eaton really looking bad. 1/2*
1. Jushin Liger (Keiichi Yamada) pinned Chris Benoit in 10:29. While not at the level of most of their matches in Japan, this was an excellent opener with stiff action and great moves back-and-forth. Liger played subtle heel. Liger doesn't fly like he did before he broke his ankle, but is still one of the best mat wrestlers around. They traded great near falls with Benoit using his killer power bomb followed by a head-butt off the top rope when Kevin Sullivan came to ringside. He distracted Benoit, allowing Liger to hit a sloppy huracanrana for the pin. ****
2. Koji Kanemoto pinned Alex Wright in 11:44 by dropping his face on the top turnbuckle (the old Vinnie Vegas snake eyes) followed by a jackknife (well, that is the name for it) cradle. Fans were chanting "USA' which is hilarious considering what country Wright is from. Kanemoto put on a wrestling clinic here, particularly some of the fastest toe holds (both a spinning drop toe hold and an incredibly fast spinning toe hold) seem since the days of Satoru Sayama. Wright used some nice flying head scissors and a dive over the top. After a slow period, Kanemoto unleashed some great kicks and a plancha. Kanemoto took over and hit the moonsault but pulled Wright up. Wright came back with several near falls and the two then traded big moves and near falls until the finish. For his age, Wright has turned into a great performer and Kanemoto has improved tremendously in being able to carry a match over the past year. ***3/4
3. Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) beat Masa Chono in 6:41 via submission with the torture rack. The crowd was really into Luger as a face. I think the reason the heel turn didn't work was because he turned on Hogan, who most fans don't like, and Savage, who most fans associate with Hogan and thus also don't really like. Not nearly as bad as I expected. Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan were making fun of Tony Schiavone as the two were doing their finish. *1/4
4. Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero) beat Masa Saito via DQ in 5:52. Diamond Doll came out as a WWF Sunny knockoff doing gymnastic routines out of fitness pageants (which she competes in). She got into a lame put-down battle with Sonny Onno which ended up doing her no favors. Onno, who was at ringside for every Japanese match, interfered freely in this one. The styles clashed as Badd is a high spot wrestler and Saito, at 53, is pretty much washed up relying on facial expressions and at that age after 30 years in pro wrestling, obviously isn't fond of taking big bumps. They chopped each other hard but Saito doesn't sell well which exposed Badd's weaknesses. They did a lame over-the-top DQ finish which made no sense, as why couldn't Saito do the job as it's not as if he's a key performer in New Japan today? After the match, Badd went to do a somersault plancha, but Saito was totally out of position and didn't seem to have a clue it was coming and Badd hit an airball, although didn't appear to be injured. 1/2*
5. Shinjiro Otani pinned Eddie Guerrero in 13:43 of the match of the show. They started slow. Otani (spelled Ootani with a first name in the pre-match graphic but the announcers didn't ever say it) left people's jaws hanging with his springboard dropkick, springboard plancha and springboard spin kick and pretty much from a performance standpoint stole the show. Guerrero came back with a Frankensteiner off the top and a BT bomb for near falls. The best subtle maneuver of the show was Otani dropping down and doing the Oleg Taktarov heel hold, the whole psychology of which was naturally lost on everyone except Guerrero who sold it great before making the ropes. Otani wound up with a bloody nose and mouth, but came back with a springboard dropkick off the top rope to the back of Guerrero's head which even brought Rhodes into the match. After a series of cradles reminiscent of Guerrero's matches with Dean Malenko, Otani wound up on top for the three count. I'm told that most fans live expected Otani to win because they knew it had to end up 4-3 and knew that neither Savage nor Sting were going to do the job. ****1/4
6. Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan (Hiro Yamamoto) in 6:55 with the elbow off the top rope. Either Savage's back and arm injuries are so bad which makes him so limited, in which case he needs to take time off to heal because he's doing nobody any good this way, or he needs to get out because he didn't do a thing and had a 24-year-old guy with limited experience carry the match for him. Fortunately Tenzan (spelled Tensan and nobody knew or cared about his first name) did a much better job than you'd think under the circumstances, even letting Savage kick out from both his mountain bomb (of course the announcers had no clue) and head-butt off the top rope finishers before missing a moonsault. Savage did one sloppy move that Tenzan had to sell for way too long while he climbed for the winning elbow. 3/4*
7. Sting (Steve Borden) made Kensuke Sasaki submit to the scorpion in 6:52 to win the World Cup by a 4-3 margin. Sasaki hit his Northern Lights bomb finisher (of course the announcers had no clue) and Power strangle (of course no clue despite him using this as a finisher on every television match). Sasaki let Sting get out of his two finishers and the announcers just babbled, missing the entire point of the match. Then he used his reverse ipponzei finisher, which Schiavone called an armdrag take-down. He went for a scorpion but Sting powered out. Sting made a big comeback with a clothesline and facebuster before winning via submission with a scorpion. ***
After this came the presentation for WCW winning the World Cup. All the wrestlers in the previous match except Savage came out, with nobody explaining why Savage was there. Benoit was there and looked like he had no clue what he was supposed to be doing since he's a heel from Canada out there as part of Team America during an American flag waving ceremony.
8. Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr) won the triangle match over Sting & Lex Luger in 28:03. The rules of the match are that the person who scores the first pin or submission regardless of over who is awarded the win, which is a rule that is lame to begin with because it would make no sense for anyone to ever tag out. Schiavone even made that point. Flair's presence heated the crowd, but in most ways this match was a total disaster. Way too long and boring with a horrible finish and a dead crowd for the last 10:00. Flair started with Sting for 10:30 and they the same spots you've seen a million times between the two which are always good. It got good heat and was good action although nothing close to the level they were at in Norfolk. The only key spot was when Sting had Flair pinned, Luger ran in to make the save for Flair against his "best friend" because if Sting had won, Luger would be denied getting the title shot. Then Luger tagged in, so Flair wrestled Luger for 7:25 and carried him to an acceptable portion of a match in which Flair put Luger in position to be a total face although he crowd was split. Then, after months of build-up of what will happen with Sting vs. Luger and 18:00 of anticipation here, Flair tagged Sting. The two shook hands. The fans booed. The two started talking and the fans went to sleep. The match 10:08 with little heat. The key spot was Luger doing a blatant low blow on his "best friend." Finally Sting made a comeback doing the Stinger splash, but missed a second attempt, and Luger put him in the rack. As this happened, lo and behold, Sting's legs knocked out the ref. Flair then clipped Luger in the knee and he tumbled out of the ring. Flair then threw Sting over the top rope. When the ref revived, he counted both out of the ring and awarded Flair the victory. Even though Flair was the lone person playing heel in this match and the finish was the ultimate lame screw-job, there was a huge babyface pop for the finish. Jimmy Hart, who was Luger's manager against Chono, but not in this match (those coherent WCW storylines strike again), then came out to congratulate Flair for basically screwing the guy he managed. *1/2
9. Flair beat Savage in 8:41 to win the WCW title. Hart was in Flair's corner which makes sense since Hart is with Luger, who is feuding with Flair and was screwed by Flair, and the Dungeon of Doom, who hate the Four Horseman. I think they just needed someone who wouldn't screw up in distracting the ref while three guys did a run-in as that was the lame idea for a finish, perhaps to protect or pacify Savage while he dropped the strap. Paul Orndorff came to ringside at one point wearing a neck brace just to keep that angle in people's heads. Savage didn't do much I guess because he's limited by his physical condition, but Flair worked well enough to make it watchable. Flair is like watching the old knuckleball pitcher who can still fool the batters, in this case he knows all the tricks of working the crowd, but in performance, seeing Flair do his routine after all the young fireballers that worked underneath was anti-climactic even if his name and presence are such that the crowd gets into him. This was a nothing match except for the title changing. Hart distracted the ref and Flair went to use the megaphone. Savage got it away from him and used it, and Flair juiced heavily. Savage then hit the elbow off the top, but Hart distracted the ref so he couldn't count the fall. At this point, Benoit and Brian Pillman hit the ring and Savage took care of them as well. Then Arn Anderson hit the ref and KO'd Savage with an object while Benoit, Pillman and Hart distracted the ref. Flair got the pin and after all that, got the biggest babyface pop of the show. After the match the Horseman, in particular Pillman, continued to destroy Savage with Pillman whipping him with the title belt and spitting right on the camera lens, and left the ring to loud cheers. *1/2
C. If that wasn't bizarre enough, the final match took the cake as Kensuke Sasaki retained the U.S. title, or lost it, to One Man Gang (George Gray) in an unannounced match. The storyline was that Sasaki wouldn't defend the title in the U.S. which is why the Sting match was made non-title after previously being for the title. So it makes perfect sense that he works as a heel underneath, then as a babyface here, defends the title in an unannounced match for no reason when the announced title match is made non-title because he refused to defend the title in the United States (Nashville must be like parts of California which go from being part of the U.S. to being considered by many as a foreign country depending upon who is in the ring at that particular moment). So this finish where the title changed hands should also make perfect sense. This match was said to have been far worse than anything else on the show. Gang used the 747 splash and the ref counted the pin, however Sasaki kicked out just before the three count. Gang grabbed the belt and raised his own arm. The ref took the belt from Gang and re-started the match, and Sasaki came back and pinned Gang and was announced as the winner and left with the belt. However, we were told Gang won the title in this match and that the match finish where Sasaki got the three count and was announced as the winner and left with the belt was done to pacify the Japanese because Sasaki is a big star in Japan and losing this match would mean he lost two matches on the same show, one of which was to a bum. The thing about him losing the title is explained that nobody in Japan (or the U.S. for that matter) cares about the U.S. title to begin with so I guess in Japan they'll just ignore he had the belt or make up their own storyline of him vacating the belt while in the U.S. they can re-edit the footage of this match and claim Gang beat him for the title. This was taped and the belief is that they'll simply cut off the tape with Gang holding the belt if it airs on television. Gang is listed as U.S. champion and scheduled to defend the title against Konnan on the 2/11 PPV show from St. Petersburg. DUD
Other show notes: WCW officials were so happy with the undercard that Sonny Onno (Eric Bischoff's Japanese liaison) and Masa Saito negotiated the next day and came to an agreement to use Japanese talent more often on PPVs in 1996 and also to do a World Cup again next year.
At the entrances, there were signs saying that all signs were going to be confiscated, although they did allow people with Pro-Hogan signs in. Some fans managed to sneak their Pro-Flair signs into the building.
Akira Hokuto was at the show with a camcorder taping the matches.
They passed out Hogan merchandise to the fans near ringside. The Hogan lookalike fan, who is a guy originally from Detroit who moved to Atlanta and calls himself Roddy Hogan, was moved around by WCW officials several times before the show as they wanted him in a position to be on camera as much as possible.
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The fake Road WarriorsThe Barbarian and The Warlord.
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If there are any corresponding watch alongs or 85 weeks videos to go along with the Nitro viewings and PPV’s please post those too
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Mr. Laryngitis, who were the faker Road Warriors-Demolition or Barbarian/Warlord ?
Bend_The_Knee
formerly gotholesinmysocks
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I requested that my Local Library buys it. They haven't bought it yet. So whenever they get it, I will read it.
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Can't even miss Big E too much when you have Big Mac!!
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Wow no Fiend tease tonight.
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probably doing weird stuff w/ alexa.
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Long con
