September '96

Monday Night Wars September '96

After a short break, 'Monday Night Raw' would return with a special episode dubbed championship Friday. Even though it aired on a Friday and wasn't directly head to head with WCW, I will score both shows, awarding the winner with a point. Additionally I'm still referring to it as 'Monday Night Raw' as even though it took place on a Friday, it was the same show in my eyes. It wasn't a one off special episode in the same vein as Clash of Champions. With that said, let's get to it!

WCW Monday Nitro September 2nd

WCW Nitro 2/9/96 (2.25 Stars)

DDP opens the show with a decisive victory over Alex Wright. Alex is someone who is not talked about nearly enough today. He was extremely talented but for whatever reason, WCW never put him over as a huge threat at any point. Before the next match, Ted Di Biase walked out and sat next to a very confused looking child. Harlem Heat retained their Tag Titles against Greg Valentine and Buddy Valentino. This led to Booker T and Stevie Ray calling out The Nasty Boys, which in turn led to a beatdown. In case you weren't aware, I was not, am not and never will be a fan of The Nasty Boys! Although another video package for the man who will seemingly never debut (Glacier) aired, which totally made up for it. *I haven't mentioned this previously, but these Glacier packages had been airing for months until this point* Chris Jericho picked up his first Nitro win against Dean Malenko. It took a while to get going, but once it did it was a good match. Towards the start of the match, Malenko utilised a rest hold on Jericho for an extended period of time, most likely due to Dean and Chris being told by producers not to take too much attention away from camera shots of Ted Di Biase walking back up the stairs and leaving. An annoying, phony tactic still used today. The Giant squashed Brad Armstrong and we saw a "Paid for announcement by NWO" that wrapped up hour one. Randy Savage over Big Ron Studd who was actually the 7ft 2 Yeti repackaged. "Big Ron Studd'' , whose real name was Ron Ries, was actually trained by Big John Studd, hence the ring name. The Stiener Brothers defeated Sting and Luger via DQ after Luger accidentally bumped into Nick Patrick, continuing that ridiculous storyline. This could have served as a great main-event as well as an opportunity to put Sting and Luger over ahead of Wargames. But that would be too easy for WCW as they yet again fall guilty to overbooking things. Sting and Lex Luger would then chase after Nick Patrick, before getting distracted by Ted Di Biase escaping in the NWO limousine parked outside, leading to Sting launching a cinder block through it's window and stealing a cop car. Admittedly a fun segment of the show. Four Horsemen over Dungeon of Doom in the main-event before a massive NWO run in. NWO destroyed both sides before The Giant came out, only to join forces with The NWO! Randy Savage tried and failed to make the save. Hogan closed the show saying there's not 4 members, there's not 5, but in fact 6. Or should I say...Syxx? The Giant rambles about square feet, getting dizzy in mansions as well as talking about cars, reasoning his alliance with the NWO to Ted Di Biase essentially buying him off. To clarify, I'm not hating on the NWO angle (yet) but they massively jumped the shark by having The Giant join so early in my opinion. Kevin Sullivan would echo these beliefs, saying that the NWO was supposed to be an "exclusive club" Supposedly, the 5th man was set to be Davey Boy Smith, whom Eric had penned in for this spot when Davey handed in his notice with the WWF 4 months prior. This however, was allegady a negotiation tactic on Davey's part, as he had no intention of wrestling for WCW or anyone else during this time. Alternatively, WCW also would have liked the 1-2-3 Kid "Sean Waltman'' to debut here, but were awaiting the official documentation before showing him on TV, post his WWF departure. In conclusion, to say this episode was angle heavy would be a MASSIVE understatement. I'm forced to grade it below average due to the lack of quality wrestling, yet I must admit parts of the second hour were fun to watch.

Raw Championship Friday September 6th

Monday Night Raw 6/9/96 (2.5 Stars)

Sycho Sid defeats HHH in the first round of the Intercontinental Championship tournament. The winner of the tournament would become the new IC champion outright, so a nice idea. I'm a big fan of tournament wrestling, as it essentially gives every match a built in storyline/direct consequence. Mr Perfect walked off with Hunter's valet Kimberly, kickstarting that starting that fued. Marc Mero defeated Steve Austin via DQ, despite Mero being the one who hit the ref. Not as good as their KOTR classic, which still remains one of the best matches I've seen from this time period. This was a great way to build heat towards Mero as well as desire to see Austin finally break through. Mark Henry accepted Jerry Lawler's one on one challenge before Mankind went over Alex "The Pug" Pourteau. During this one, JR made us aware that "Hall and Nash" were on their way back to the WWF. Oh boy. Spoiler, they obviously weren't. Bob Backlund introduces, or reintroduces, WWF legend the IRON SHEIK! Apparently Sheiky baby would train Bob's latest recruit. Pop. Although they missed a huge opportunity not having Sheik cut a promo on Hogan and WCW. HBK retains his WWF Title against Goldust. The quality of this episode hinged on the quality of the main-event, and in all fairness, it was quite good. One of Goldust's better matches during his WWF tenure thus far. WWF wins the point.

Raw/Nitro September 9th

Monday Night Raw 9/9/96 (2.25 Stars)

Round two of the IC tournament saw Faarooq accompanied by Sunny defeat Savio Vega in the final first round match of the IC tournament. Personally I would have loved to see Owen win the tournament, having a run with a title. While I genuinely don't know the result of the tournament as of writing, the WWF were probably building towards Faarooq/Johnson for when Ahmed returned. Shawn then has an in-ring segment to build his match with Mankind at IYH. He called out Camp Cornette, before cutting a very good promo on Mankind. The Stalker (Barry Windham) enjoyed a successful return to the WWF, as he pinned T.L Hopper, the wrestling plumber. Windham was previously tag champions as part of the U.S Express with his partner Mike Rotunda (WCW's V.K Wallstreet) in the mid 80's. During the match Owen Hart was shown backstage with Pillman, claiming himself and Bret had fixed their problems and were back together, he also promised Bret's long awaited WWF return would happen at the upcoming In Your House PPV. Crush went over Freddie Joe Floyd (later known under his real name Tracy Smothers in ECW) in a squash match. Apparently Jim Cornette suggested to WWF higher-ups that they should sign some free agents to flesh out the roster, thus being able to better compete with WCW. Hence the signing of Tracy Smothers. I'm unsure as to why he supposedly didn't recommend guys like Chris Jericho, whom he had actually worked with in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, but maybe he was rebuffed. Finally, the name "Freddie Joe Floyd" was a rib on the Briscoe brothers (Freddie Joe Briscoe and Gerald Floyd Briscoe) who were front office officials at the time. Undertaker made his Raw comeback in the main-event, pinning the "undefeated" Salvatore Sincere (another one of Corny's signings) in the process. This was a dull match as well as a poor choice of opponent for the deadman's return. He may have been "undefeated" but this was his Raw debut, so Salvatore would have been an unknown quantity to casual Raw viewers. To say this episode was below average is a kind assessment indeed. But to be fair to the WWF, it would have been hard competing against a TV show that had an entire hour's advantage on them. You could argue Raw would have struggled to fill 2 hours during this time period, and you may be right. But no one can deny it was a massive advantage for WCW all the same. Raw was guilty of massively stretching out angles during this time, but maybe having 2 hours would have forced the creativity to come sooner. Although next week they will host two semi final matches, so they should fare better.

WCW Nitro 9/9/96 (2 Stars)

Nitro's go home show has been well set up yet I hope they have a quieter episode this week and save something going forward.

Super Calo defeats Pat Tatanka ahead of his Cruiserweight Title match with Rey Mysterio at Fall Brawl. Not a great start. Rick Stiener called out Lex Luger as a result of their tag match getting thrown out last week. I say called out, he kept yelling "I can beat you" or rather "EYE CAN BEAT 'IM" He sounded so much like his brother Scott and as a result this whole segment was unintentionally hilarious. Next was an NWO announcement shilling their T-shirts (incidentally, they would go on to become some of the best selling shirts in the history of pro-wrestling) as well as footage of Glaciers debut that occurred on NWO Pro for some reason. Why it had been built for months on Nitro, only for his actual WCW debut to be on a different show entirely, is beyond me. Nasty Boys defeat Amazing French Canadians before their highly anticipated contest with Harlem Heat at Fall Brawl. If this was supposed to put Nasty Boys over ahead of the PPV, they did a poor job as this match was a complete mess! Norton over Pittman, Juventud Gurrera over Joe Gomez and Rick Stiener over Lex Luger rounded off the first hour of Nitro. Luger was called out of the ring by Nick Patrick mid match, losing via count-out in the process, only to face STING in the parking lot! Now seemingly partnered with the NWO, Sting and the heel faction took turns in attacking Luger! Lex managed to somewhat fight them off before the assailants drove away into the night. If it wasn't for the Sting segment and Luger/Stiener having somewhat of a backstory, it safely would have been the worst first hour of Nitro to date. None of this was shown to the fans in attendance by the way, who were left to sit on their hands while all of this was going on. Rey Mysterio breezed past Billy Kidman in a super quick and pointless match before Faces of Fear defeated Public Enemy. Although saying that, the result wasn't made very clear as no hands were raised, nor could you hear the ring announcer properly. If this tag match was cut entirely and the extra time was given to Rey and Billy, the overall show would have been much better. They also cut to a Horseman promo backstage in the middle of the match, so you wonder why they bothered including it on the card in the first place. One last "Paid for by the New World Order '' promo, whereby it's newest recruit Ted Di Biase informed the audience that if they win on Sunday, they want their own segment on Nitro, as well as their own tournament. That last part was quite vague but if you know WCW's history, you will know what it references. Tenta over Randy Savage via DQ in the main-event before Teddy Long frantically called for Savage to come to the parking lot. No one was there but Randy and some of the WCW locker-room enjoyed vandalising NWO's second limo with yellow spray paint. But it was raining, because of course it was, so it barely showed up. If you want an example of a badly booked, poorly paced wrestling show, this episode of Nitro was just that. After the Sting reveal, they wasted nearly 10 minutes showing recaps. Media lecturers could point to several moments of this show, teaching students what NOT to do while producing television! That's without even mentioning the overbooking of the NWO. The whole idea of them initially, was that you had 3 of the biggest names in the sport, combined into one super faction with Hogan, Hall and Nash respectively. No disrespect to The Giant, but he wasn't anywhere near their level during this time, they were constantly teasing new members and the "Sting" turn, while a good idea in theory, was poorly executed (more on that later) I will explain my thoughts on Eric Bischoff at a later date, who was essentially running the show at this point. To summarise, if this review seems all over the place, that's because this episode was. The ONLY saving grace is this. I'm still intrigued by the Wargames match as well as the PPV in general. For that reason alone, it gets 2 Stars instead of 1.75, saving it from being joint tied as the worst episode either company had produced. Yet objectively speaking, it was still the worst episode of Nitro I have seen so far!

Fall Brawl '96

Live from North Carolina, DDP picks up the win against Chavo Guerrero in a very good opening match. Both men managed to hold my attention for the duration of the contest and it started the show on the right foot. Next, Scott Norton defeated his former partner Ice Train in a submission match. A strange stipulation choice for two men this size, but it wasn't a bad match by any means. An interesting point to note, is that it took place before the era of people recognising an arm bar as a "shoot hold" I.E a hold that if properly applied, can do real damage. With MMA's rise in popularity, nowadays people fully appreciate how dangerous this move really is. (Thank you Ronda Rousey) Ice Train was on the receiving end of the move for a full minute. In reality, his arm could have been broken within seconds. Konnan retained his Mexican Heavyweight Title against WCW's new acquisition Juventud Guerrera. The first better than average match of the night, with Konnan debuting his gangster look. Chris Beniot defeats his fellow Canadian adversary Chis Jericho in an absolute classic! These two men had wrestled once before under different monikers, during the 1995 edition of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Super J Cup. Their first match was highly revered, earning a 4.25 star rating according to the Wrestling Observer. I'm not sure I'd rate this outing quite as high, but it's VERY close. To be fair, it was about as good as a match without any build could be! As such, it goes into the books as another Beniot classic from his time in WCW, alongside his falls count anywhere match with Kevin Sullivan earlier that year. When you watch a Beniot match, it feels as if you are seeing someone truly fight for their life. The little things he did in between moves made it all seem so visceral. He sold not only the moves that he took, but those he gave too. He showed you through his facial expressions and body movements, that he was trying to do whatever he could to beat his opponent. This match is a great example of that particular skill he possessed. Back to back to back strong matches as Rey Mysterio Jr successfully retains his Cruiserweight Title against Super Calo. Calo hit a particularly impressive looking missile dropkick from the top rope to the outside, a move you don't see too often, and with good reason! Calo also did a good job of using his size in an attempt to outmuscle Mysterio and build some heat for the match. Sadly though, the crowd were indifferent so it didn't have its desired effect. Harlem Heat also retained their tag titles against The Nasty Boys before the latest member of The NWO, The Giant, took on Randy Savage. Hulk Hogan distracted Savage, leading him out of the ring and towards an NWO beatdown. The seemingly blind referee missed all this of course, allowing the NWO to toss Randy back into the ring for The Giant to cover him 1-2-3! A pair of bad matches that unfortunately sent the card on a downward trend right before the main-event. At least the crowd didn't have a racial bias against Harlem Heat this time, so that's something I guess. Saying that, the fact they were more invested in what the Nasty Boys were doing than Rey Mysterio's match, is one I find utterly ridiculous. Ahead of the main-event, Sting confronted Luger and The Horsemen protesting his innocence. He claimed it wasn't him who attacked Luger on Monday Night. WHAT?!?!?! The Wargames match closed the show. The NWO released 3 names for their team with the fourth being kept a secret. Hogan, Hall and Nash. The challengers also only had 3 names officially announced. Lex Luger, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. Arn started the match with Scott Hall. As you may imagine, their styles suited each other really well. Next out was Kevin Nash, giving the NWO a one man advantage. Luger came out to even things up before Hogan entered as the final known NWO entrant. Flair then comes out to a humongous pop as he, Luger and AA all beat up the NWO before "Sting" comes out as the NWO's fourth man. The final entrant for WCW's team was in fact...STING! The real Sting that is. I loved this moment as initially I raged at the prospect of a Sting heel turn. I thought it was way too much, way too soon and completely unneeded. Thankfully, it all worked itself out in the end. Sting leaves the match as he tells the Horsemen "Is that good enough for ya" turning his back on them for not believing him in the first place. The NWO picked up the victory as Lex Luger gave up at the hands of, as he would be known going forward, nWo Sting. Post-match Savage goes after Hogan but is cornered by Hall, Nash and The Giant. Miss Elizabeth comes out, begging for mercy to be shown towards her ex husband. Hogan sprays NWO on her back before calling them both pieces of trash and spitting on Liz before beating on Randy anyway. My closing thoughts are this. It almost feels as if the Wargames match was INVENTED FOR THIS FEUD! I loved it personally, it was entertaining, it had drama, some surprises and most importantly...it made sense. There was a reason for everyone being involved which can be rare for a multiman gimmick match. The first half of the card was really good in parts, with some matches of real quality. Yes, a few matches towards the end under-delivered, but the main-event itself was very fun and the ending was a pleasant surprise with the welcome reveal that Sting was in fact still a good guy. Yet, with no title changes or promoted rivalries outside of the main-event, it felt like for most of the show nothing meaningful really happened. Also, the NWO stuff post the Wargames match itself went too long in my opinion and felt like overkill. Solid show nonetheless with a great main-event (3 Stars)

Raw/Nitro September 16th

Monday Night Raw 16/9/96 (2 Stars)

Raw's go Home show revealed which two men would battle it out for the IC Title, presumably to take place on Sunday's PPV. Although it wouldn't shock me if they stretched that out to the following week's episode of Raw. *Spoiler, they would! The show opened with Jake Roberts chasing Jerry Lawler away from the commentary position, before submitting at the hands of The Iron Sheik's newest protege The Sultan, previously known as Fatu yet better known as Rikishi. Solofa Fatu Jr comes from the Anoa'i family, a legendary group of Samoan wrestlers boasting talent such as Rocky Johnson, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) and even modern day stars such as Roman Reigns, The Uso's and Naomi. Bob Holly and Alex Porteau defeat The Smoking Gunns as Camp Cornette watched on from ringside, causing the distraction. Apparently Owen and Davey (Camp Cornette) would be taking on The Gunns at the PPV, I had no idea this was the case but I am totally fine with it, as the WWF tag division was painfully weak around this time. Jim Cornette proceeds to cut in an in-ring promo ahead of his match with Jose Lothario at In Your House. We also saw Gorilla Monsoon offer a public apology to WWF fans, as he stated that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would NOT in fact be returning to WWF TV. I honestly have no idea what was going on here as the whole thing is, and would turn out to be, totally bizarre and utterly pointless anyway. The final two matches saw Marc Mero defeat Owen Hart, as well as Faarooq defeating Sid. As a result, Mero and Johnson would eventually battle it out for the IC Title. Pre-taped footage from a tour in South Africa showed Bret Hart calling Brian Pillman and Owen liars, stating he never voiced any intention of returning at the upcoming PPV. My final thoughts are as follows. The Owen match had potential to be so much better then it was. Also I found it a strange decision that they didn't attempt to sell the Mankind/HBK match more. It would be the main-event of the upcoming PPV and it wasn't mentioned whatsoever, save for a 30 second Mankind boiler room promo wedged in at the end of the show. Below average show that was destroyed in the ratings by WCW anyway.

WCW Nitro 16/9/96 (2.75 Stars)

Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera opened the card with Rey retaining his Cruiserweight Title in a very entertaining match indeed. Rey hit an incredible reverse frankensteiner off a top rope powerbomb for the win! Yet it was inbetween footage of some nerdy NWO fans in the parking lot. This angered me as it was truly a spectacular finish that was completely overlooked. I also would have preferred Juventud to have gone over at Fall Brawl to give reason to his title shot, but that's me being picky. Still an excellent start to the show! DDP defeats Ice Train with some controversy we missed, as replay footage showed DDP grab a towel out of Teddy Long's hand and throw it, to give the impression that Ice Train quit. Again, they don't show the finish to the match as the camera cuts to some more NWO nerds hijacking the merch stands. Seriously...wtf?! Who was sitting ringside during this one...none other than X-Pac...I mean Sean Waltman/1-2-3 Kid, sorry. He was obviously aligning with the NWO and honesty, if WCW hadn't already overbooked this angle, they could have made a much bigger moment out of this. Konnan defeated Super Calo, yet again retaining his Mexican Heavyweight Title. A particularly impressive match, especially considering the time they were given! Brad Armstrong rolled up Hugh Morrus to round off a very strong first hour of Nitro before Scott Norton beat Randy Savage via DQ to kick off the second. Savage went nuts in his trademark style with the crowd absolutely eating it up! Randy played this unhinged persona to perfection but I'd still like to see him win every now and then all the same. The even bigger news was...GLACIER FINALLY DEBUTED ON NITRO! There are plenty of stories about the ridiculous expense spared on his OTT entrance, but we will touch on that further down the line. Glacier played a Mortal Kombat type character in an attempt to try and capitalise from the popularity of the gaming franchise at the time. But all you need to know is this, he went over Big Bubba and it was glorious! I'm actually hyped to see what they do with his character as looking back on it, they clearly had high expectations for him. Sting cut a beautiful promo, effectively stunting on all of his 'haters' and making some great points in the process. He explained that he stood by Luger through thick and thin, defending him when he aligned with the wrong people, yet the first moment doubt could be cast his way, he as well as the entire WCW locker-room, commentators and personnel, all turned their backs on him. He had a point to be fair. Sting declared himself a "free agent" whatever that meant. I was genuinely left intrigued by this statement and it was very well done. Miss Elizabeth showed the effects of getting harassed by the NWO at Fall Brawl, as she was reluctant to accompany The Horsemen to their match, with Arn Anderson and Ric Flair defeating Chris Jericho and Marcus Bagwell. Kid (Syxx, as he would be referred to later in the broadcast) was officially shown as being a member of the NWO for the first time, laughing with Hall, Nash, Hogan and Co, outside of the arena. A lone Lex Luger defeats Chris Beniot and Steve McMichael via DQ in the main-event after Sting no-showed. He was essentially left for dead as all Four Horsemen (no pun intended) ran in to put a beating on The Total Package. The NWO were seen gloating at the fact that most of WCW will be touring in Japan next week, except Randy Savage. Hogan promised them all tickets for the show. Not a bad episode overall, with some good wrestling and a surprising amount of restraint from WCW in regards to the NWO stuff. My only problem was this, why did the Horsemen beat on Luger, seeing as they seemingly had a common goal in defeating the NWO and partnered with him at the PPV last night. It was probably to keep them cemented as heels but it still didn't make much sense. It is wrestling though, so I'll give that moment a pass. WCW won the point anyway, producing a much better show then Raw, and that's all that counts at the end of the day. Nitro finally gets out of the starting blocks, winning their first point of the month! cont...

In Your House 10 (Mind Games)

Live from the City of Brotherly Love was the 10th edition of In Your House: Mind Games. The show kicked off with Savio Vega getting revenge on Bradshaw in a strap match. Supposedly this was a continuation from a pre-show match in which Bradshaw attacked Savio for some reason. Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman were sitting ringside before being kicked out by security. Vince described them as being from a "local wrestling group here in Philadelphia" The group he was describing of course, being none other than ECW! In retrospect, ECW is considered by some to have been the 3rd "major" promotion in North America at that time. With WWF and WCW drawing the most viewers, ECW still had an extremely dedicated cult-like following, despite only being televised in certain areas. I apologise for massively glossing over a huge chunk of wrestling history, but I've got a show to review dammit! Anyway, Savio picked up the win in the opener, boasting a 2-0 overall record in Strap matches. Impressive. I'd like to add, I'm a big fan of this stipulation and as such, I'm glad it isn't overused today. Backstage "Razor Ramon" (Rick Bogner) and "Diesel" (Glen Jacobs AKA Kane!) attack Savio Vega. Geez, this guy can't catch a break can he. Two assaults by 3 different people in one night and he's only been at work for 20 minutes! We move onto a rare Jim Cornette match. Now I'm as big of a JC fan as the next guy, but this match was never going to be good. To be fair, I don't think it was supposed to be. Formerly a manager of the wildly popular tag team, The Midnight Express, as well as forming and booking a southern territory by the name of Smoky Mountain Wrestling. At this time, Jim had a new role within the WWF, where he would assist in scouting new personnel, appear as on screen talent as well as being a member of the creative team. Onto his match. He would be defeated by Jose Lothario, and what the match lacked in quality, it made up for in not being gratuitously long. Clocking in at around one minute. Next up, we saw the Smoking Gunns drop the tag titles to Owen Hart and British Bulldog. Not a spectacular match by any means but easily MOTN so far and one of the best I've seen from the Gunns in a while. I popped for this title change, plus as I've already stated, seeing Owen and Davey together was a much needed shot in the arm for the tag division at the time. Before the match, Brian Pillman who was now aligned with Owen and Davey, cut a promo on Philadelphia, before bringing out his pal Steve Austin. Austin would then call out Bret Hart, stating "If you put the letter S in front of Hitman, you'd have my exact opinion of Bret Hart '' Mark Henry received his official in ring debut as he pinned Jerry 'The King' Lawler. Henry would grow into a future WWE Hall of Famer with a stellar career spanning two and a half decades. Although at this point he had had zero in ring experience. Taking this into account, he still had a fair outing. It was a short and basic match, so not much to say other than it was mistake free and he looked strong at the end of it. Taker defeats Goldust in another really bland match before we finally get to the main-event! Mankind Vs Shawn Michaels with the WWF Title on the line. As was the case for most, if not all of Shawn Michaels PPV matches around this time, it was excellent. Yet it takes two to tango, as Mick did a brilliant job in this match also. This is the difference between the hardcore "wrestlers" of today and guys like Mick Foley. Yes, Mick competed in death matches and took insane bumps. But he also had the innate ability to connect with the crowd and have everybody sympathize and root for him. He was also a master of psychology and very talented in the ring. And the final, and possibly most important metric in all of this. He actually made money while having a wildly successful career for the largest fed on the planet! This contest is a great example of all of those things in my opinion. A real contender for my Match of the Month! Shawn retained the title via DQ after a Vader run in, dampening the mood slightly. But it continued the program, so I'm all for it. Taker pops out of Mankind's casket and the pair of them brawl off into the sunset. Overall, not a great card. In fact, you could argue it was a bad one. But a two hour show with a solid ending that saw Mick Foley step up to the plate and hit a home run in his first WWF PPV main-event, deserves some respect (2 Stars)

Raw/Nitro September 23rd

Monday Night Raw 23/9/96 (2.25 Stars)

Marc Mero pinned Faarooq to become the new Intercontinental Champion in an entertaining match. I like both of these guys and enjoyed this one. Also, in retrospect, I can see why they felt they had to save it for this episode of Raw. Even if it didn't help in the ratings war. Vince McMahon exposes Jeff Jarrett for apparently lip synching to his hit song 'With My Baby Tonight' and promises to reveal the real Double J next week (Road Dogg anyone) Jeff was set to debut for WCW, so this was just a case of sour grapes. Honestly between that and all the Razor/Diesel stuff. I have a headache. Owen Hart and Davey over the Bodydonnas before the WWF announced what would turn out to be a very historic match up for the upcoming PPV. The Undertaker would face Mankind in the first ever Buried Alive match! I can only imagine the hype for this one at the time. It was an extremely creative concept that fit both characters perfectly. The Stalker (Barry Windham) defeats Hunter Hearst Hemsley in the main-event. Mr Perfect left with Hunter's valet setting up that angle. I didn't understand this main-event. Like, at all. We got some fake Diesel/Ramon foolishness in the post spot. But not before J.R (Famed commentator Jim Ross) cut an excellent promo about his very real mistreatment by the WWF. Including but not limited too, being fired two weeks after his first attack of Bell's Palsy, being rehired due to Vince getting indicted (thus being unable to commentate on TV) only to be let go again before being rehired that same year, only for cheaper and in a lesser role. Now this story in itself would have been fine. But they tied it in with Jim supposedly rehiring two impersonators of former stars who had already left, presumably in an attempt to embarrass the WWF, and his boss Vince McMahon. Enter fake Diesel and Razor Ramon. Not a fantastic show by any means of the imagination, with some even describing this episode as the lowest point of the show's history. Personally I'd have to disagree as I have seen far worse from the previous year. Yet I do understand why this episode is dumped on so much, and it's probably all down to the ridiculous fake Diesel/Ramon angle. But with that said, the year as a whole wasn't actually THAT bad. 1996 brought us Bret vs Shawn, Mick Vs Taker as well as the rise of the Steve Austin character. Yes '96 Raw was going against a much more entertaining WCW product, and yes at times it was stale and boring. Yet the show still had its moments, along with possessing undeniable stars and reasons to tune in. But to be fair, without the concrete knowledge that it would get MUCH better. I can understand the resentment towards this particular show. Decent enough wrestling, ridiculous booking.

WCW Nitro 23/9/96 (2 Stars)

So this was the episode when most of the top tier WCW talent would be in Japan. The story for the show being, would the NWO capitalise on this and stage an attack? The Taskmaster and Konnan defeated Brad Armstrong and Juventud Guerrera in a match I don't understand whatsoever. What link did Sullivan have with his partner, and vice versa? The Dungeon (Big Bubba Rogers and Taskmaster) beat down Konnan post-match, as part of an induction into their stable. So Konnan was now aligned with the DoD? Cool. Jericho over Mike Enos before Glacier goes 2-0 with a victory over Pat Tatanka. Ahead of his match, Tatanka used and technically debuted Goldberg's theme music, almost a year before the big man would arrive in WCW himself. Harlem Heat LOSE their titles against Public Enemy before moving onto hour two. I would have given this one half a star, if only WCW had the good sense to keep the titles on Booker T and Stevie Ray, but they didn't even get that right. I'll pop when Public Enemy eventually drops the titles, so that's something I guess. Savage/Valentine ends via DQ due to Savage attacking Valentine from the top rope with a chair before an NWO run-in. Hall, Nash and Syxx work the Macho Man over as Miss Elizabeth was shown looking on in distress. The Giant comes out to announce the head of the group and WCW World Champion, Hollywood Hogan. (Hollywood being Hulk Hogan's new prefix as a heel) Hogan hit a leg drop on Savage before spraying his head with black paint. NWO then commandeered the commentary table with Hall and Nash putting on a headset to reveal the newest member, Vincent (Formerly Virgil of the WWF) Michael Wallstreet pinned Jim Powers as Hall and Nash took shots at Powers alleged steroid use from the table. "Oh yeah, he's all juiced up and ready to go" being only one of the not so subtle digs lobbed by the Outsiders. Before the match started, Hall and Nash would attack Powers, only for the ref to leave entirely stating "This isn't WCW, I'm having no part of this'' Nick Patrick would take over in his place with your new ring announcer for the evening, The Giant, picking up an extremely unofficial pinfall. Hogan runs into his real life friends backstage, The Nasty Boys, before telling them he respects them both and wants to talk business. Jim Duggan's match with Big Ron Studd is thrown out due to a Hogan beat down. The replacement is none other than X-Pac, sorry I mean 1-2-3 Kid. No...Syxx! Syxx goes on to defeat Jim Duggan and so far, I haven't seen one good match tonight. The NWO stuff is semi entertaining but with most of the main-event guys away, it kind of lacked meaning. 'nWo' Sting defeats Bo Ladoux (Who?) Before The Outsiders defeat High Voltage in the main-event. Yes, Raw had terrible, self destructive booking. But at least they produced something that somewhat resembled a wrestling show. WCW had the perfect opportunity to keep back 2 or 3 guys who, combined with the likes of Jericho and Juventud who never travelled anyway, could have put on a couple of really good +20 minute matches, which would have accounted for half of the show anyway. Instead they opted for a myriad of thrown together 5-10 minute matches with little to no story. Chris Jericho had an ok outing with Mike Enos, but that was as good as it got sadly. I'm just as shocked as you are, but it was a case of bad booking and ok wrestling Vs terrible wrestling and ok booking. WWF Raw somehow...takes the point!

Raw/Nitro September 30th

Monday Night Raw 30/9/96 (2.5 Stars)

The end of the month is nigh. Due to me undertaking my research in advance, sadly I am aware there are a couple of weeks left to the current taping cycle. I'm led to believe things will improve during the next one. For the meantime, let's finish strong. Steve Austin faces Jake Roberts in a match that, if it was prime Jake Roberts and a program was built around it, would have easily been a MOTY contender. This could have been a dream match, but sadly the timelines just didn't match up. With all of that said, it was still a good TV match, with Austin picking up the win. Hunter called out Mr Perfect in a short and sweet moment before The Grimm Twins (The Harris Brothers) did the job for your favourite tag team and mine...The GODWINNS! Savio Vega picked up a DQ win over 'fake' Razor (aka Rick Bognar) after a 'fake' Diesel run-in. While I do realise it was a silly angle, people get far too upset over it. It was filler at best and hardly took up any meaningful TV time. According to Bruce Pritchard, it revolved around taking back ownership of the characters WWF believed they created. Essentially sending out a message of, "You may leave, but we created your likenesses and are responsible for your success" Yet in my opinion it had the opposite effect, as it was a constant reminder of WCW and the fact that you could see the actual talent themselves, only elsewhere. Additionally, in Scott Hall's WWE produced documentary "Living on a Razor's Edge" he claims that he reached out to Bogner, offering to sell him his old ring gear to use for the angle. Finally, in one of the funnier points of the whole fiasco, we now know it resulted in both Kevin and Scott indirectly working Eric Bischoff and WCW, getting big pay rises as well as contract extensions in order to secure their future. Anyway, a surprisingly entertaining main-event saw Jim Cornette and Vader as they defeated Shawn Micheals and Jose Lothario! A post-match Sid run in sets up his match next week with Vader. Overall, the fake Diesel/Razor nonsense aside, we were treated to a surprisingly watchable episode of Raw with a good main-event. I did have to rub my eyes after seeing Shawn lose clean on TV to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but considering how it was usually the main-event spot that let the show down, it was nice to see them sign off on a high note for once.

WCW Nitro 30/9/96 (2.25 Stars)

The show opens with Bischoff admitting he has made some mistakes during his time in WCW. But the number one mistake he ever made was signing Hulk Hogan. Powerful. Public Enemy retained their newly won tag titles against Juventud Guerrera & El Technico (Billy Kidman) before a "Paid for announcement by the NWO" Not anymore. The heel faction explains that since they won at Wargames, WCW would take care of it from now on. We watch as the renegade group all drink and act generally bodacious in a hotel room together. Alex Wright apparently "shocks the world" with his victory over Dean Malenko in a decent enough match, before Randy Savage failed to show up for an interview with Mike Tenay. Savage was booked to face Hogan at Halloween Havoc and credit to WCW, they did a fantastic job of keeping them apart yet continuing to build heat for the fued. Eddie Guerrero and Jim Powers fail to deliver, with Eddie picking up the awkward win. WCW tried to paint it as another controversial Nick Patrick decision, but it came across as messy in my opinion. Discounting that, the match itself wasn't good, and that is all that matters at the end of the day. In yet another 'kind of but not really' paid for by The NWO announcement, The Nasty Boys are shown walking into the hotel room, joining forces with NWO. Arn Anderson and Woman question Miss Elizabeth over her intentions in regards to Randy Savage, and what that means in terms of her alliance with The Horsemen going forward, before Hugh Morrus pins Brad Armstrong to close hour one. Eric Bischoff leaves the broadcast table to go play detective and confront The NWO, as Arn Anderson defeats Chris Jericho in a match that on paper, I had super high expectations for. As you would expect, it was a fun match that showcased what they could do if given more time with each other. It was certainly the high point of the show thus far. Although that's not exactly saying much. I especially enjoyed the tightly worked finish with Jericho missing a lionsault only to walk into a DDT! WCW finally called time on "VK Wallstreet", presumably out of fear of poking the bear in regards to the whole Vince McMahon joke, as Lex Luger submits the newly dubbed Mr Wallstreet to a Torture Rack. So now the poor guy was labored with a shitty gimmick for no reason? The Faces of Fear defeat Rock 'n' Roll Express and surprisingly this match wasn't half bad. I was all but ready to write this one off but it turned out to be one of Morton and Gibson's (Rock 'n' Roll Express) better matches since their WCW return. The old school fan in me loved it even if the crowd didn't, and I found myself rooting for the faces towards the contests close. This along with the Arn/Jericho match may have saved the show from complete disaster. Chris Beniot gets a big singles main-event event victory, at the expense of Rick Stiener. This was another match that had high potential. Especially considering both men's adeptness of working strong style. Chris Beniot was willing to eat some big shots and Rick Stiener was a man more than happy to dish them out! Sadly, it was a 4 minute match with a screwy Horsemen finish. Before WCW went off air, we saw a final bout of drama as a cagey Miss Elizabeth was shown in the NWO Hotels room. We were led to believe she had made some kind of "deal" with the NWO, but now wanted out as "everything has changed" As she left, a furious Macho Man showed up before Nitro went off air. A confusing end to the show and honesty, maybe I am holding Nitro to a higher standard at this point. But in my eyes, rightly so as they had an entire hour's advantage over Raw, as well as the hottest angle in wrestling at the time. So if they failed to deliver a show that I deemed to be at least average/semi entertaining, then they will typically lose. As a result, a bog standard Raw holding the better main-event see's team WWF win its second consecutive week, which considering what they were producing at the time, is surprising to say the least. Nitro was slightly better then last week's showing due to showcasing two presentable matches (AA/Jericho & Faces of Fear/Rock 'n' Roll) yet I still wasn't quite enough. I could probably score it a draw but the general consensus is this was a poor episode anyway, so I'll stick with my original verdict of a Raw win.

Summary and scores

WCW clearly had some teething problems. They had a stacked roster but seemed confused how to book everyone and fit it all into 2 hours (well technically 1 hour 30) of television. Luckily they would eventually solve that...kind of. As for the WWF, they were in a major slump. But they too would fix that, by changing up the writing staff and writing more edgy television geared towards ratings in an attempt to win back some of the fans lost to WCW! The month see's WWF claw themselves back into my imaginary competition as they win 4 out of 5 overall! That said, the excellent YouTube channel Wrestling Bios, who does a fabulous job of covering this era also, actually scored this month as 3-2 in favour of Nitro. So it goes to show, wrestling is extremely subjective. But with neither show delivering on a consistent basis, I would argue that it is very difficult to judge the shows in the manner that we are. The scores are WWF 17-29 WCW with 5 ties.

Match of the Month: Shawn Michaels Vs Mankind (IYH Mind Games)