December '96

Monday Night Wars December '96

At one point, it looked like WCW were running away with it. Not necessarily because they were producing amazing TV, but because the WWF was doing such a bad job of countering them. Yet things had changed. With the WWF shaking up their program while creating some new stars in the process. Neither side could afford to take their foot of the gas, so let's see how the year of 1996 ends!

Raw/Nitro December 2nd

Monday Night Raw 2/12/96 (2 Stars)

Flash Funk with his extremely entertaining entrance opened the show, as he defeated The Goon. According to Al Snow/Leif Cassiday, it would be a match against Flash Funk that would impress the WWF higher-ups. Yet for whatever reason, he was still unhappy, eventually requesting to work in ECW. I haven't seen that match yet, but I doubt this one had a similar effect. Fake Diesel defeats Phineas of the Godwinns, while the real Diesel (Kevin Nash) was at the forefront of the biggest angle in wrestling at the time. Not the best start to the show, and if I was tuning in live, I probably would have switched over to Nitro at this point. Fake Diesel (Glen Jacobs) struggled to pick up Phineas during the finishing sequence, when he hit the Jackknife Powerbomb. I wouldn't blame 'Diesel' for this, as he is exceptionally strong. So I can only assume that Phineas didn't help him out as much as he could/should have. Justin Hawk Bradshaw pins Jesse Jammes (yes, it was intentionally misspelt as Jammes, a play on how Jeff Jarrett used his name) before we saw footage from WWF's live event in London. At this UK show, we saw Austin attack Sid with the WWF Title, before British Bulldog made the save, in an effort to gain some retribution from last week, as well as presumably teasing some kind of face turn. Sid gets pissed, believing Davey caused the DQ, only for Davey to be saved by Bret Hart. So to summarise, Bulldog continued his effort to turn face leading to Bret saving him from Sid, with Austin still going after everyone in sight. Hunter Hearst Hemsley and Billy Gunn, unintentionally teasing a DX formation years ahead of its time, faced Jake Roberts and Marc Mero in the main-event. Marc Mero pinned Hunter, putting some heat on their title rematch at the upcoming IYH PPV. This match was ok for what it was, considering it was essentially a filler main-event. Yet overall this show was the definition of missable TV. Although next week would host an advertised No Holds Barred match, between The Undertaker and Mankind. Top that Eric!

WCW Nitro 2/12/96 (2.25 Stars)

Rick Steiner calls out Sting before Glacier makes light work of Hardbody Harrison. I'm actually looking forward to Steiner/Sting. If it actually takes place, it should be a good match. The Amazing French Canadians defeat Renegade and Joe Gomez before Arn Anderson tells Mean Gene that Roddy Piper has protection from the Horsemen. Faces of Fear pin Scotty Riggs and Robert Gibson (Rock 'n' Roll Express) Riggs had split from the American Males after his partner Bagwell turned on him last week, yet I still had no idea what Gibson was doing with him. Especially considering Gibson had previously worked full tag matches as part of The Rock 'n' Roll Express on Nitro. Taskmaster defeats an unspecified talent (Sean Casey/K.C Sunshine) before we finally see a somewhat decent match, as Dean Malenko retained his CW Title against Billy Kidman to wrap up hour one! Jeff Jarrett pins Big Bubba before Rick Steiner called out Sting for a second time. Sting smiled from the rafters, accepting the challenge! NWO commandeer the commentary table, with Hall, Nash and Bischoff putting on the headsets. Eddie Guerrero defeats Dave Taylor in a match that could have been fantastic given the talent in the ring. Sadly, it was around 3 minutes long and failed to achieve much as a result. Arn Anderson defeats Jim Powers before we get our second passable wrestling match of the evening. As Chris Beniot defeats Lord Steve Regal in the U.S Title Tournament. Lex Luger defeated Rocco Rock (Public Enemy) "Thank God" before our main-event. Rick Steiner was set to face Sting, yet sadly, that would have been too simple for WCW's tastes. Sting offered Rick his bat, only for Scott Steiner to tell his brother to walk away. Sting then points his bat at the NWO, before leaving. Steiner/Sting would have been a great way to end the show, but they had to WCW it up with a non finish as well as unneeded confusion. They could have easily removed Luger/Rocco from the card, giving Sting and Steiner 15 minutes to actually wrestle in its place. I'd actually be more surprised if they had a normal main-event on Nitro at this point. This was still a better show than Raw, with some fun segments and a couple of ok matches.

Raw/Nitro December 9th

Monday Night Raw 9/12/96 (2.75 Stars)

Sid picked up a victory ahead of his match with Bret Hart on Sunday, as he defeated the Intercontinental Champion HHH, via count-out. It was a short and sweet champion Vs champion match to kick off Raw, designed to put Sid over and make him look like a killer. At least it didn't suffer from some of the screwy non finishes that seemed to plague this era of wrestling. Goldust pins Bart Gunn, leading to Billy Gunn to come down and trash talk his former tag partner. I can't quite put my finger on it, but watching Dustin Rhodes portray this Goldust gimmick, left a lot to be desired. If you watch some of the matches under his actual name 'Dustin Rhodes' in WCW or even in more modern times. He is exceptionally talented, yet for whatever reason, while in this gimmick, his in-ring ability didn't come across as well. It seems very unusual that a gimmick would limit or hinder someone's in-ring ability, but for whatever reason, this seemed to be the case. In my eyes at least. Jesse Jammes defeats Bradshaw and Zebekiah/Zeb Colter (Dutch Mantel) in a two on one handicap match. This led to Bradshaw turning on Zebekiah, and branding him as a result. Bret Hart makes one last ditch effort to sell the PPV on Sunday, as he spoke in-ring with JR, before the reason everyone who tuned in to this show did in the first place. The main-event, as Undertaker took on and defeated Mankind in a No-Holds Barred match! This was better than their showing at Survivor Series, and actually suited the shorter TV format. This allowed the match to be faster paced and punchier. Usually a plus for hardcore style gimmick matches. I was actually set to write how much this match would have benefited from an extra 5 minutes, yet Taker and Mick made the time constraints work exceptionally well. They got a lot done and delivered one hell of a match! Post-match The Executioner (Terry Gordy) attacks Undertaker ahead of their Armageddon Rules match on Sunday. Due to the main-event alone, this was one of the best episodes of Raw I can recall since Hunter won the Title in October (21/10/96) but a stronger undercard would have helped this show immensely.

WCW Nitro 9/12/96 (2.5 Stars)

On Nitro, Roddy Piper comes out wearing a Carolina Panthers T-Shirt for the cheap pop. Roddy says he wants Hogan now before Piper's music plays, prompting him to leave the ring. I can only imagine he misspoke, meaning to say "tonight" instead of now, as why would he call someone out, only to leave the ring straight away? Mr Wallstreet squashed Mike Enos before receiving a contract from Ted Di Biase (presumably to join NWO) Hugh Morrus pinned The Renegade before Dean Malenko retained his Cruiserweight Title against Jimmy Graffiti. I've been quietly impressed with Jimmy Graffiti (Jimmy Del Ray) so far. He didn't look fantastic, during this time at least. A matter that wasn't helped by dumping him with a scruffy Graffiti gimmick, whereby he came to the ring adorned in a loud tee, with paint on his hands. Nonetheless, he could put on a decent match with the right dance partner! The number one contenders for the Tag Titles, Faces of Fear, defeated The Nasty Boys to close the first hour. As a match it was awful. Although, even being someone who dislikes both of these teams immensely, I am forced to admit I enjoyed parts of this one. It devolved into chaos as the referee followed Jerry Saggs around the ring for some reason, allowing Jimmy Hart time to interfere on behalf of his team. Hart smashed The Barbarian with his microphone by mistake, before getting tossed out of the ring by Saggs, who was then rolled up for the 1-2-3! Chris Jericho over Bobby Eaton before Arn Anderson pinned Craig Pittman. Jericho and Eaton could have and should have been given much longer! Last time they faced, it was match of the night, on a card mostly playing host to poor in-ring action. Bobby Eaton seemed massively undervalued by WCW during this run. Considering how well respected he was backstage, only made it all the more strange. DDP hands Jeff Jarrett his first Nitro loss in the US Title tournament. Scott Hall interfered, hitting the Razor's Edge on Jarrett while the ref's back was turned. A good match on paper and highly enjoyable to watch. The stakes of tournament progression only added to the fun. The crowd responded well to Dallas, and he seemed very over (popular) at this point. 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper once again calls out Hogan, only to be met by Eric Bischoff instead. Eric tells him Hogan isn't here, prompting Piper to go crazy and attack Bischoff, forcing The NWO to surround the ring. A lot of the top guys were on an international tour of Germany, hence the lack of quality during parts. But I've said it before and I'll say it again. Keep one or two guys back and let them go for 20 minutes or so. Hell, they could have given Bobby Eaton that time. Even if you could possibly make an argument for WCW hosting the better overall show. Nothing they did topped Raw's main-event between Mick and Taker. Hence why Raw was awarded the higher score and the point this week.

In Your House 12: It's Time

IT'S TIME was live from West Palm Beach, Florida. It wasn't Vader time, or even time to play the game (not yet anyway) but it was time for something. The opener would be the famous match between Leif Cassiday and Flash Funk. Flash Funk picked up the win, although it's Cassiday who refers to this match as the one that got him noticed by WWF higher-ups in a positive light. He would still ask to leave and work for ECW as according to him, his "head was so far up his own ass" he didn't listen to anyone. I'm a fan of both men and it was a great way to open the show. Bulldog and Owen Hart retained their Tag Titles against fake Diesel and 'Razor Ramon.' Cybernetics and Pierroth from AAA attempted some kind of distraction. I say distraction, the reality was they simply walked down the ramp to ZERO reaction. Of course the crowd had no idea who they were, they had their masks on! Only 1 or 2 masks are instantly recognisable to North American fans, and they sure as shit aren't Cybernetics or Pierroth's! Although Steve Austin did show up, garnering somewhat of a reaction in the process. Austin scuffled with Bulldog before getting escorted away by security. Post-match, Austin returned to beat down The British Bulldog. Vince McMahon reintroduced Ahamed Johnson, who was set to return from his legit kidney problems. Johnson called out Faarooq, with the pair set to face off at the 1997 Royal Rumble. HHH retained his I-C Title against Marc Mero. Goldust came down and nailed both men in the face with the championship mid-match, leading to a Marc Mero count-out victory. This of course meant Mero won the match, but not the championship. These two had excellent chemistry, already having delivered two 3 star plus matches (in my opinion anyway) at IYH 8: Beware of Dog, as well as their Raw main-event 2 months prior. Next was the Armageddon Rules match between The Undertaker and The Executioner. Mankind interfered, keeping his feud with the deadman alive. Yet Taker overcame the odds going on to win the match! This would be heralded as the first ever last man standing match in the WWF, only under a different name. When in reality, it was a Texas death match, with a pinfall or submission required before the 10 count. The pace was sluggish, with punches and kicks aplenty, so this could certainly be described as a low point of the show. Luckily the main-event was a different matter entirely, with Sycho Sid retaining his World Title against Bret Hart. Shawn was on commentary, but proved a distraction taking a big bump of the ring apron, leading to Bret and Shawn brawling post-match. If anyone ever tells you Sid couldn't work. Point to two matches. His main-event against Shawn at Survivor Series, and this one. So, pretty much his entire WWF Title run. It may have been short, but it was exceptionally sweet! The matches on the card were ok for the most part. More specifically, 3 out of the 5 matches were good. But this was a PPV, and one that never really felt like it got out of 3rd gear. No big moments, truly excellent matches or major storyline advancement. Luckily next year would be 1997, and to quote JR…"business is about to pick up" only this time. The business was LITERALLY going to get better. For the short term anyway (2 Stars)

Raw/Nitro December 16th

Monday Night Raw 16/12/96 (2.25 Stars)

Bret Hart addressed his match from the PPV. Bret says that apparently, there's no rules in the WWF, referring to the interference by both Austin and Michaels during his match. As a result, he declared himself a participant in the Royal Rumble. Steve Austin beats Vader via DQ after Bret Hart hits him from behind before locking him in a sharpshooter. Austin/Vader had the makings of a great match, so hopefully the WWF revisited it down the line. It was still a hot way to start the show, something both the WWF and WCW had difficulty achieving most of the time. Imposter Diesel and 'Razor Ramon' defeated The Godwinns before Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon beat TL Hopper and Dr X (Tom Pritchard) Diesel and Razor would go on and face Furnas and Lafon to close the year, so at least the booking was somewhat consistent. If 'Diesel and Razor' could successfully put them over, with Furnas and Lafon going on to win the Tag Titles at the Rumble. Bing bang boom, you'd have created a new top-tier duo. They had the talent, all they needed was a little push. After some Karate Fighters nonsense that saw Sable (w/ Marc Mero) defeat Jerry Lawler (w/ Hunter Hearst Hemsley) Lawler and HHH double teamed Marc Mero, until Goldust was forced to make the save. Billy Gunn faced his kayfabe brother Bart Gunn in the main-event. Bart Gunn supposedly injures his brother Billy, with a stun gun of the top rope. The match was called off with Billy and Bart's "family" all showing concern in the ring. Bart is distraught and that's the show, and honestly. It wasn't fantastic, but at least stuff happened. The opener was hot and grabbed my attention. They also advertised a future match between Hunter Hearst Hemsley and Marc Mero as well as the strange ending between Billy and Bart. I was nearly only giving this 2 stars, as Austin/Vader didn't reach a full conclusion. But in the spirit of keeping things competitive, as well as the work shoot ending. I'll grade it slightly higher.

WCW Nitro 16/12/96 (2.5 Stars)

Bischoff, Virgil and Ted Di Biase (The NWO accountants as I like to call them) came out and took over the commentary table, replacing Larry Zbyszko and Tony Schiavone in the process. The first match was a good one as Lord Steve Regal defeated Psychosis. Lord Steve Regal won the TV Title while working on the WCW European Tour. They gave a good amount of time to this match (around 15 mins) with Eric repeatedly referring to the show as NWO Nitro. Big Bubba over Chavo Guerrero and Chris Jericho over Masa Chono. Sony Ono revealed Masa Chono as WCW's latest defection from NJPW, only for Chono to turn on him and reveal an NWO shirt in the process! The Four Horsemen defend Beniot dating Woman, with AA delivering the line "Kevin Sullivan, I'll mend your broken heart with a broken body" Dean Malenko over Dave Sammartino as we move onto hour 2. David is the son of legendary Italian wrestler, Bruno Sammartino. Eric hands the commentary duties back over to Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay. Jerry Flynn made his Nitro debut, in a losing effort to Ice Train. Hall and Nash challenged their Starrcade opponents Faces of Fear to a non-title match. I didn't want to see the match at all if I'm honest, let alone see it twice. Someone I did want to see however, was Bobby Eaton. Bobby was becoming a regular bright spot on this show, as he was pinned by Rey Mysterio in a fairly decent match. I would have LOVED to see these two wrestle for 20 minutes or so, but alas it wasn't meant to be. 'Taskmaster' Kevin Sullivan faced Arn Anderson in an extremely entertaining match/segment. They brawled to the outside of the ring, before Arn was hung up in the tree of woe, only to grab Kevin's nuts before he could hit the knee. I've never seen that spot before and it was very clever. Arn single handedly fought off members from the Dungeon of Doom, before eventually becoming overwhelmed. Sullivan would nail Arn Anderson in the back with a chair for the win. Rick Steiner was set to face Sting. Instead, both Sting and nWo Sting both entered the ring. There was a cute moment whereby the commentary team acted like they couldn't tell which one was the real Sting (Steve Borden) even though they somehow managed to look completely different, even while wearing matching clothes and face paint! nWo Sting looked like he was doing a bad impression of someone from the Warriors film. Anyway, the real Sting hits nWo Sting with a Scorpion Death Drop, perhaps sending a message to the NWO? Hogan cut a promo on Piper before the main-event match of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash Vs Faces of Fear devolved into absolute chaos. It started with Big Bubba defecting to The NWO from Dungeon of Doom, leading to both sides (WCW/NWO) coming out and brawling. The final scene saw Sting stand in the centre of the ring, "fighting off" WCW members who attacked him unprovokedly, before leaving. Until the ending, I really enjoyed the second hour. You had Eaton/Mysterio as well as AA/Sullivan. Unfortunately the final segment felt messy and I didn't enjoy it. Yet overall, it felt like some effort had gone into booking an interesting card that made sense. As opposed to some recent episodes, showcasing random matches with some NWO segments thrown in for good measure. Nitro takes the point.

Raw/Nitro December 23

Monday Night Raw 23/12/96 (2 Stars)

Hunter Hearst Hemsley retained his Intercontinental Championship in yet another classic battle against Marc Mero. This series of matches have been highly enjoyable, and they've actually made me somewhat of a Marc Mero fan! We're told 'allegedly' Billy Gunn has no use of his lower limbs, alluding to the fact he was paralysed. Obviously this wasn't true and I'm unsure if this should be classed as distasteful or not. Rocky Maivia pinned Salvatore Sincere and we got a short in-ring Sid promo. As Sid was talking, we saw Shawn watching from the back looking completely bored. I like Sid, but I can't really blame Shawn as I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat listening to him talk myself. Pierroth and Cibernético made their Raw debut, defeating The New Rockers before Bret Hart pinned 'Razor Ramon' in the main-event. While I was happy to see some new tag teams being blooded in, I wasn't particularly impressed by the Mexican superstars and the Bret Hart match was outright lazy booking. The show started off well but got gradually worse as it went on. The show closed with an interesting Shawn Michaels promo from backstage. He was obnoxiously saying "YEAH" to every question Vince McMahon asked him, before a light bulb seemed to go off inside his head, perhaps realising he was coming across as a bit of a dick. He eventually saved it, but I have to wonder what state of mind he was in. While I don't wish to make baseless allegations, going off what we already know about Shawn during this time period. It wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't entirely sober here. Anyway, Hunter and Mero saved the show from complete disaster.

WCW Nitro 23/12/96 (2 Stars)

Eddie Guerrero won his U.S Title Tournament Semifinal match against Chris Beniot. As a result, Eddie would go on to face DDP for the U.S Title at Starrcade. Post-match, Beniot stands with the Horsemen as Arn Anderson cut a promo on Kevin Sullivan. Debra McMichael chimed in calling Woman damaged goods. Beniot went off on both her as well as her husband Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, before Ric Flair was forced to lighten the mood and calm the pair down. Vincent (Virgil) and Ted Di Biase accompanied Hulk Hogan to the ring for his spotlight promo. Hogan called Roddy Piper a "coward in a skirt" I'm unsure why Piper didn't cut more promos. It's safe to say as one of the all time greats talkers, Roddy could have done a far better job than Hogan. Lex Luger submits Tombstone (better known as 911 in ECW) to the Torture Rack before applying it to The Giant, his scheduled opponent at Starrcade, during a post-match run-in. Rey Mysterio defeated Mr J.L to close a strong first hour. Mysterio hit a particularly impressive looking Suicide Dive. Instead of the traditional dive from the middle of the ring, he executed it from the corner near the ring posts instead. I've never seen the spot done like that before, but it looked fantastic. Post-match, Rey Mysterio attempted to kill time by correctly pointing out that Sting was only defending himself last week, and that it was he (Rey Mysterio) who jumped on Sting's back first. Rey proclaims Sting is WCW all the way. I'm left wondering, if he thought that. Then why jump on Sting's back in the first place? Glacier pins Sgt. Parker. Sgt. Parker, real name DeWayne Bruce, was the infamous head trainer of WCW's developmental system the Power Plant. He was known for his no nonsense training methods, attempting to break his students down both physically and mentally. During a documentary, he made British journalist Louis Theroux exercise to the point of being sick during one of his workout sessions. This would serve as payback for questioning the legitimacy of the sport. Amazing French Canadians defeat Public Enemy via DQ. Sadly this was being booked as a feud apparently, meaning this won't be the last time I will sit through these dreadful segments. NWO's latest member Big Bubba, defeats Konnan due to Nick Patrick shenanigans and a BS over the top rope DQ.

Dean Malenko and Lord Steve Regal went to a time limit draw for Regal's TV Title in a match that should have been good, but sadly wasn't. Jeff Jarrett faced Rick Steiner in the main-event with some nWo Sting shenanigans sprinkled in for good measure. nWo Sting came down to the ring, only to get clotheslined by Steiner, allowing Jarrett to pin him. nWo Sting wasn't legally in the match but whatever. Hogan cuts another promo on Piper, with Eric Bischoff also coming out to mock him. This prompted Piper to run down and face them, only to receive an NWO beatdown for good measure. While the first hour of the show had its moments, the second didn't have any whatsoever. The Sting stuff made no sense and both of Hogan's promos were bad. As I'm grading it as a complete show, it didn't manage to top Raw, although the first hour managed to save Nitro with a draw. Regardless, only 6 days later Starrcade would break the company's PPV buyrate record. Let's hope it was accompanied by a strong card.

Starrcade '96

Live in Nashville Tennessee, Starrcade would become WCW's most successful PPV until that point, with an impressive 345,000 buys. In what was billed as a nine belt match, as Dean Malenko put his Cruiserweight Title on the line against Ultimate Dragon's 8 Titles or his "J-Crown '' Winner takes all! This was a good match, but if you were expecting a typical high flying Cruiserweight masterpiece, you'd be left disappointed as it was very slow and technical during parts. Ultimate Dragon won via pinfall, adding WCW's Cruiserweight Title to his J-Crown in the process. Akira Hokuto became the inaugural WCW Women's Champion, as she defeated Madusa in the finals of the title tournament. Next was the match I was waiting for, as Jushin Liger defeated Rey Mysterio. In 1996, Liger underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour. So the fact he was even still able to compete is mind blowing to me, never mind achieve the high level of performance he did on this night. Liger's personal life story is very interesting, and a reason he is one of my all time favourites, as well as an icon in general. Chris Beniot faced Jeff Jarrett in a No-DQ match. These two were supposedly very mad with eachother, hence the stipulation. Why they were mad with eachother I'm unsure. Jarrett won via screwy finish, after Sullivan nailed Beniot with a chair, before Arn Anderson hit Jarrett with a DDT, rolling him back in the ring. Double J threw his arm over a knocked out Beniot for the win. Debra McMichael buried Woman and called Beniot a loser, furthering the tension within Camp Horsemen. The Outsiders retained their Tag Titles against Faces of Fear. Nothing to see here, yet unfortunately I had to. DDP took on Eddie Guerrero in the U.S Title Tournament Finals with Scott Hall coming out to hit the most awkward looking Razor's Edge on Dallas, giving Eddie Guerrero a pinfall victory. Eddie then, perhaps unwisely, chose to fight off numerous NWO members post match. Hopefully we'll see Syxx Vs Eddie on Nitro and it will be amazing, but nonetheless. It was another good match on a good show (so far) Lex Luger faced The Giant and honestly, this wasn't completely terrible. Sting came down mid match killing the referee before leaving a bat in the middle of the ring. He walked over to both Lex and The Giant, whispering sweet nothings in their ears, before walking away. HUH?!... Lex went on to use the bat, ultimately winning the match. This was supposedly furthering the whole "which side is Sting on" angle, but I wouldn't be surprised if WCW were just winging it at this point. The main-event would be the "match of the century" between Hogan and Piper. Would it actually be the match of the century, or was Eric lying to us all, in order to sell tickets and PPV buys like the little rascal he is? Let's find out. The match starts as you would expect, a lot of pointing and posturing, mostly from the Hulkster. Eventually it did pick up, as Roddy worked some nice kicks to Hogan's back, took him to the outside and proceeded to beat him with a belt strap. Ted Di Biase came out before Hogan beat Roddy on the outside some more. The Giant somehow came in and Chokeslamed Piper, due to a distraction from a 'fan' in the ring. Piper fought off The Giant before locking in a sleeper on Hogan. And that was it. Rowdy Roddy Piper, defeated the face of both the NWO as well as WCW, in the most anticlimactic way I could possibly imagine. The Outsiders come out to check on Hulk, with the lasting image being that of The Giant walking away from his NWO comrades and scowling. He had a future title shot, remember?!?! Hogan's closing remarks were "HE DROPPED THE BALL BROTHER" but without the brother part. He was referencing The Giant in case you are curious. Overall it was a pretty good show, narrowly sneaking a place on last of top 10 PPVs for the year (3 Stars)

Raw/Nitro December 30th

Monday Night Raw 30/12/96 (2 Stars)

Jesse James/Bret Hart and Savio Vega defeat Steve Austin and Faarooq via DQ thanks to a Nation of Domination run-in. Bret Hart replaced Jesse James mid match due to a Jesse James injury. As opening tag matches go, this was pretty bad. This was more of an angle than a wrestling match, purely used to further tension between Austin/Hart as well as building Faarooq's new faction, Nation of Domination. Ahamed Johnson fights off the Nation post-match, setting up his Rumble match with Faarooq. The Intercontinental Champion Hunter Hearst Hemsley, defeats Flash Funk. A promo was shown for the WWF's newest show, Shotgun Saturday Night. This was an interesting premise for a wrestling show, but luckily for me I won't be watching it. Initially airing from a small nightclub in New York City. The idea was a late night wrestling show with edgier content than what would typically be shown on their more mainstream programmes. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels met for an in-ring face-off. Bret claims Shawn has degraded the WWF Title, chastising him for doing a nude playgirl shoot as well as blaming Shawn for costing him the Title in the first place. Before HBK could make his rebuttal, Sid states they've both played the game and lost, and now he wants some real competition. Enter The Undertaker. Vader would try his luck before Taker ran him off. Shawn and Sid proceed to brawl on the entrance ramp. In the main-event, Jerry Lawler defeated Goldust via count-out due to HHH interference, capping off an extremely forgettable episode of Raw. Roll on 1997!

WCW Nitro 30/12/96 (2 Stars)

Hogan tells The Giant he "dropped the ball" but would still get his Title shot...eventually. The not-so Amazing French Canadians defeat Public Enemy to kick off the show. New Cruiserweight Champion Ultimato Dragon over Jushin Liger in what can only be described as a palate cleanser. Konnan defeats NWO member Mr Wallstreet in a strap match before we get treated to a promo from Mr NWO himself in Hollywood Hogan! Hogan channelled his inner Chael Sonnen when he incorrectly claimed that HE BEAT Piper at Starrcade. Hugh Morrus defeated Kensuke Sasaki via DQ after Sonny Ono interfered. My favourite tag team (possibly of this entire time period) Harlem Heat defeat Faces of Fear after some BS involving Amazing French Canadians before DDP teased joining The NWO. The two tag matches really hurt WCW's first hour of programming. They weren't very good and I was also getting pissed off with how Harlem Heat were being booked in general. I also DID NOT want to see them feud with Amazing French Canadians! Hour 2 kicked off with a funny moment when Bobby Heenan was hyping the upcoming midget tag match! He mentioned they weigh 280 pounds "One doesn't weigh that, they all weigh that!" as in 280 was the combined weight. It was a shame as I was really looking forward to seeing a 280 pound midget! Glacier over Disco Inferno. Say what you want about the actual wrestling, but again I wasn't bored. Glacier had a somewhat interesting character and they tied Disco's loss into an ongoing story of him losing concentration. Much better than WWF's bland throwaway matches involving Bradshaw and Jesse Jammes. Chris Beniot defeated Chris Jericho, reminding me why I started watching these older wrestling shows in the first place. There's no point in me adding anything to be honest, it was Beniot/Jericho and it was damn good! Sadly it was short, and if they removed some of the garbage on this show it could have been much longer. Debra and Woman traded more words but I really didn't care enough to pay attention. Next up would be the midgets (I believe the PC term is vertically challenged nowadays) I'd never seen a midget match before and I wasn't disappointed. Quick history lesson on midget wrestling. Originating from the vaudeville shows/carnival days in North America in a similar way to typical Pro-Wrestling, it exploded in the 1950's before suffering a sharp decline. Although, its resurgence in the 90's upset the "little people of America'', a charity providing support to those suffering from dwarfism. They claimed it wasn't true Pro-Wrestling anymore, and was merely being treated as a joke and a sideshow. Additionally, when the mini's (the correct term for midget pro wrestlers) debuted in Mexico, their gimmick or look was based on the non mini wrestlers from the same company. While initially some of the talent were insulted by this, it quickly became a badge of honor to have your own "mini" I'd find it cool as hell personally, but anyway, moving on. Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio ended in a time limit draw, and as good as the match was it was hurt by a lack of meaning. It felt it only happened to fill time, and I was ready to see the pair face new people. Lex Luger defeats Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine before Roddy Piper cuts a promo on Hogan. This of course led to an NWO beatdown. The NWO also turned on The Giant after he finally put his hands on Hogan, being sick of his bullshit in regards to the promised Title shot. There were some bright spots on this show, 3 to be precise, so for that reason alone it wasn't an absolute dud. The last segment was ok, but I was left feeling burnt out after sitting through a lot of the bad stuff that had happened prior. I was also disappointed with the booking of Harlem Heat. I understand why WCW probably wanted to keep the titles on The Outsiders, but you could have still built up Harlem Heat as a legitimate threat and had the two teams feud throughout 1997! For all of these reasons, but mainly the fact that most of the show wasn't very good, the final head to head of 1996 ends with a tie! If I'm being honest, when both shows are bad and neither clearly deserves the win, regardless of my personal grading it's usually the fairest way to score things.

Summary and final scores

The year is finally over and there has been some good and a WHOLE lot of bad! We've seen the introduction of the edgy Vince Russo inspired "attitude era" as well as WCW having terribly inconsistent quality across all of their programming. If you were to ask me what moments spring to mind from this year of wrestling, it would be; Taker and Mankind, Marc Mero's defection to the WWF, the weird Hog Wild PPV, Eric Bischoff getting powerbombed off the stage by the Outsiders, Rey Mysterio's matches with Dean Malenko as well as the "Pillman's got a gun segment" I'm not saying these are all necessarily the best moments, but most of them are and they are all genuinely what I think of first when it comes to wrestling in 1996. Finally, I've included my top 10 PPVs as well as my Match of the Year award below. As for my show of the year, I was torn between two events. Great American Bash and Survivor Series. What decided it for me was my MOTY award. Survivor Series hosted Austin/Hart, whereas GAB had numerous matches that could have made the shortlist but sadly didn't. I recall writing that Shawn/Mankind at IYH 10 could have taken the honours, being one of my all time favourite Mick Foley matches, but they were just pipped at the post by Bret/Austin. I'll post my entire shortlist for both categories below. The scores to end the year of 1996 are as follows. WCW 34-21 WWF with 9 Draws. “Your name sir is Hulk Hogan, I think you need to go over”- Kevin Sullivan 1996

96' PPV Rankings

10- IYH 6/Rage in the Cage (3)

9- Starrcade '96 (3)

8- Bash at the Beach '96 (3)

7- WM XII (3)

6- King of the Ring '96 (3.25)

5- IYH 11/Buried Alive (3.25)

4- Hog Wild '96 (3.25)

3- IYH 8/Beware of Dog (3.25)

2- GAB '96 (3.5)

1- Survivor Series '96 (3.5)

Match of the Year Award

Austin/Hart- Survivor Series- MOTY 1

Mankind/Shawn Michaels- IYH 10- MOTY 2

Psychosis/Rey Mysterio- Bash At The Beach MOTY 3