2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

11 years ago tonight.

1) Thanks to He Who Shall Not Be Named, it's a shame you'll never see this match except on YouTube.

2) Say what you want about Trips, but that he worked through that was bad ass.

 

I can't watch YouTube here at work, but I googled it and figured out what match it was. Heck of a match and like you, I don't like a lot of what Triple H did (and does do), but I have to give him credit for making it through that match.

 

Ah, yes. I was 19, in college, and couldn't be a bigger mark for either Benoit or Triple H. I wish they had done more together. Even Benoit's Wrestlemania moment in 2004 was tainted by him just being a side attraction to Triple H/Michaels part 3,492.

 

In regards to No. 1, I found it amusing (in a weird way) in Jericho's second book that whenever he'd refer to a Benoit match, he'd write, "This match doesn't exist anymore." (or words to that effect) And he wrote it something like 5 or 6 times, kinda tweaking the WWE.

 

As a Jericho mark, I think that's his high-water mark in terms of fan response, possibly tied with when he "won" the title the first time from Triple H on the fast count. The crowd for that match was so incredibly hot. And while Triple H might be a power monster behind the scenes, in front of the camera I've never ever thought that he's given less than 100 percent. (The same goes with Cena, in contrast to, say, the Bobby Lashley and Ultimate Warriors of the world.)

 

Yeah, for all of HHH's political stuff, there aren't many times - especially when it's a big-time match - that he doesn't have his working boots on. He and Cena both. Cena has his rep of having the same moveset now as he did when he first got to the WWE, but he's made it work and hardly anybody will put more of themselves into a match.

 

Yep.

And an aside ... I miss the APA. Loved their entrance music.

 

The APA were great. JBL went on to make a ton of money afterwards and Ron Simmons will forever be known for one word.....

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that. He's had some funny spots with it.

 

Here's another review. Let me know your thoughts.

Disc 1

Brian Pillman vs Jushin Liger - September 4, 1995
For you trivia buffs, this would be the first match in Nitro history. A short and spotty match that shows off what both guys can do. Liger busts out a Kappou kick, somersault senton to the outside and a power bomb. Pillman has a few good moments including catching Liger jumping off of the top rope and hitting Liger with a dropkick in mid air. Pillman gets the win after surprising Liger with a roll-up. When you compare it to their Superbrawl II match, it's horrible. However, when you realize it was just meant to start off the show on a high note, it's a good enough start. For any WWF fans watching the show, they were immediately shown a match that only the likes of Hakushi, The 1-2-3 Kid or Owen Hart could have. 2 3/4 Stars.

Hulk Hogan (c) w/Jimmy Hart vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW World Title - September 4, 1995
The main event of the first Nitro. I have to hand it to Bischoff, he booked the first show well. You open up with a match showcasing what your high flyers can do, follow that up with two WCW legends going at it in the form of Sting and Ric Flair, have a huge return with Lex Luger coming out during the match and finish off the show with two well known former WWE stars. As expected, this was a rather dull match with Hogan phoning it in. Even though he was past his peak, Rogers worked hard and I always get a kick out of his overselling. Hogan heels it up by using Jimmy Hart's jacket while Hart distracts the ref. Hogan gets the win after the big boot and leg drop. After the match, the Dungeon of Doom hits the ring to attack the Hulkster. Lex Luger makes the save and the two mega faces clears the ring. For some reason, Hulk is pissed at seeing Hogan. Luger and Hogan almost comes to blows before Sting and Randy Savage get between them. Hogan acts like the biggest douchebag egomaniac by getting on the mic and telling Luger to go back where he came from and that WCW was his yard. Seriously, Luger was in the company for several years before leaving. Hogan had barely been there for a year. Luger tells Hogan he's here for only one reason - the WCW World Title. Hogan agrees to give him a title match on the next edition of Nitro. Match sucked, but the post-match events actually makes me want to see Luger/Hogan. 1 1/2 Stars.

Nothing happens for the rest of 1995. Don't bother looking to see if Luger/Hogan ever wrestled, if various newcomers debuted or if the WCW Tag Team Titles switched hands.

Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair and Arn Anderson - January 8, 1996
In case you're wondering, Flair is the current WCW World Champion. He's in the middle of his multiple title switches with Savage that gave Flair the belt a couple weeks prior at Starrcade, but he'll lose it before the end of the month on Nitro. Hogan and Flair starts off by trading wrestling holds. No seriously, Hogan wrestles. I swear he only does it to see if anyone is paying attention. Savage carried the workload for his team by playing the face-in-peril. Once Hogan gets the hot tag, it's all action until he pins Anderson with the leg drop. The rest of the Four Horsemen tries to hit the ring, but the Dungeon of Doom stops them. The Giant climbs in and takes out both Savage and Hogan. The Giant during this time period was AWESOME. You can't really go wrong with some classic Horsemen tag teaming, Savage selling and The Giant kicking ass. Pretty fun main event. 3 Stars.

Sting and Lex Luger (c) vs The Road Warriors - WCW Tag Titles - February 5, 1996
Luger's sorta a heel and is sorta, but not really with the Dungeon of Doom. Despite this, he's still best friends with the uber face, Sting. It creates a rift between them with Sting wanting to be friends with Luger, but not agreeing with morals. Animal plays the face-in-peril for most of the match with Luger doing some dastardly heel tactics while Sting tries to keep it fair. Even though most trashes it, I really dig their Superbrawl VI match with Luger playing the chicken shit heel and trying to stay out of the ring. While this Nitro match isn't quite as good, it's still rather enjoyable for what it is. With Sting and Hawk fighting (And distracting the referee), Jimmy Hart (Who's now a heel with the Dungeon of Doom) comes out to distract Animal long enough for Luger to hit him with some sort of metal to score the cheap victory. Sting isn't happy, but he'll take the win anyhow. 2 1/2 Stars.

Lord Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay - Parking Lot Brawl - April 29, 1996
YES! In all honesty, if you ask me what's the one Nitro match that was the most memorable for me, it was this. Finlay and Regal had been feuding ever since Finlay arrived on the scene and attacked Regal on WCW Saturday Night. For the record, they're both heels. Such a brutal match with glass breaking all over the place, Finlay dropping a tire on Regal's stomach, bumpers being used and just general fighting to get over how much these two hate each other. This set the standard for parking lot brawls and one that has yet to be topped. Regal gets the win after piledriving Finlay on top of a car. This may have been a "Worked" match, but both guys had to be so sore in the morning. It may not be the best match, but it is my favorite Nitro match in history. 3 1/4 Stars.

Ric Flair w/Woman and Elizabeth vs Eddie Guerrero - May 20, 1996
Well this match is a little depressing. Three out of the four main participates are dead and Flair could die any day in the ring. This was set-up the previous night at Slamboree as Eddie Guerrero teamed up with Arn Anderson to face Ric Flair and Randy Savage in a Lethal Lottery match. Anderson turned on Guerrero, DDT'ing him to allow Flair the easy pin. The first thing that stands out is how behind the crowd are for Guerrero. There's a loud "Eddie" chant early on. Guerrero takes a rough bump and injures his knee midway in the match. Despite doing quite well against the multiple time champion, you can see the ending coming a mile away. Bischoff gets in a few shots at the WWE, mentioning how two of Flair's World title reigns do not count. Guerrero tries walking the ropes while holding Flair's arm (Taker's Old School) to set-up a hurricanrana, but he takes such pathetic steps that it just looks sad. Guerrero nails the Frog Splash, but can't cover due to his knee hurting so much. Flair locks in the Figure Four, but Guerrero doesn't give up. The referee simply counts Guerrero's shoulders down on the mat. What the hell? How many times has Flair won by pinfall thanks to the Figure Four? This received a lot of time. By being just under twenty minutes, it may have been the longest Nitro match up to this point. It had it's moments, but it didn't click as well as it should have with me. Guerrero was bland as can be at this point, so I didn't find myself cheering for him. Having Eddie win with a surprise roll-up or something would have been a more gratifying finish. 3 1/4 Stars.

May 27, 1996 - Scott Hall debuts during the Mike Enos/Steven Dunn match to declare war on WCW. Interesting, Hall doesn't poke fun at Hulk Hogan like he did Savage, Sting, Mean Gene and Ted Turner. If there's one moment that Hall will always be remembered for, it's this.

June 10, 1996 - Bobby Heenan rants on Randy Savage, but when he gets the glimpse of something off camera, he quickly leaves. Scott Hall appears, ready to show Bischoff the surprise he had teased the previous week. Bischoff laughs at Hall, thinking the surprise fell through. Behind Bischoff stands former WWE World Champion, Kevin Nash. Nash is surprisingly very wordy in this promo. Anyways, they're heading to Great American Bash (That Sunday) to find out who they're facing in a match. His part may have been small, but Heenan's reaction to seeing Hall was easily better than anything else.

Sting and Lex Luger (c) vs Harlem Heat vs The Steiner Brothers - WCW Tag Team Titles - June 24, 1996
Sting and Luger are wearing Sting's face paint to show unity as they head into their six man match with Savage against the nWo at Bash at the Beach. The Outsiders coming into WCW is what really made Luger a full fledged babyface after months of being a tweener. Fairly standard match with Sting having to wrestle both members of Harlem Heat and the Steiners while Luger is on the outside for most of the match. It's just as Luger comes in to clear house that the nWo heads to ringside through the fans. At least a half dozen police officers hit the ring to hold off the Outsiders. Thanks to all of the distractions, one member of Harlem Heat rolls Luger up for a pinnfall to win the belts. In an amazing visual, the cops are shown with their hands on their guns, just waiting to pull them out. Wow. Folks, that is how you get over an invading force. Despite the Outsiders being outnumbered four-to-two (Steiners, Luger and Sting) and there being six police officers, the cops still feel the need to prepare to draw their weapons. The match had it's moments, but the quick and sudden ending ruined any potential it had to be a worthwhile match. The post-match events was awesome though. 2 1/4 Stars.

July 8, 1996 - The night after Bash at the Beach. We're shown the final few moments of Big Bubba vs Lex Luger with Luger being DQ'd for hitting Rogers with a pair of brass knuckles that Jimmy Hart threw in the ring. The Outsiders and Hollywood Hogan hit the ring to attack Luger. Luger takes a Jackknife from Nash. Hogan teases bringing Big Bubba in as the fourth, but it's just a ploy to allow the Outsiders to attack Rogers. Mean Gene enters the ring and Hogan cuts another promo similar to the one at Bash at the Beach. The two new developments are that there will be more members of the nWo (Possibly from within WCW?) and Hogan challenges the Giant to a WCW World Title match at Hog Wild.

July 29, 1996 - The tail end of the Luger, Savage and Sting vs Flair, Anderson and Benoit match is shown. Jimmy Hart runs out and tries to get all of their attention. Finally, they all follow Hart to the back. Arn Anderson and Marcus Alexander are laid out thanks to the Outsiders. Scotty Riggs is taking out on camera. Then there's the classic moment of Rey Mysterio Jr. being caught by Nash and sent head first into the side of a trailer. The Outsiders leave in a limo as WCW wrestlers and officials hit the scene. Woman in particular does an amazing job at putting over the scene as she truly sounds worried about the well being of Arn Anderson. Rey Mysterio utters the most important line of the segment though "There were four of them..." Up to this point, it was only the Outsiders and Hogan. The nWo has officially grown again.

Sting and Lex Luger vs The Outsiders - August 12, 1996
The first free "Match" for the nWo. It's mostly just a brawl with all four men. The big moment comes when Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Nash, but when he attempts it on Hall, Nick Patrick pulls Hall out of the way. Suddenly, the Four Horsemen hit the ring to chase the Outsiders out of the arena. Like I said, it wasn't a regular match (And thus I won't be rating it), but it's a pretty big moment.

August 26, 1996 - Tail end of the Sting/Luger vs Benoit/Mongo match is shown with some action between Benoit and Sting (Yes, Benoit is shown a decent amount). Hollywood Hogan comes out to the ring and suckers Mongo into being attacked by the Outsiders. All of the WCW guys get spray painted with the nWo letters. Arn Anderson and Ric Flair hit the ring, but they end up with the same fate at the other WCW guys. Hogan and the Outsiders take over the commentator's table.

September 9, 1996 - Tail end of Luger vs Rick Steiner is shown. Referee, Nick Patrick, runs out to get Luger's attention similarly to how Jimmy Hart did. Luger bails and runs to the back and is counted out. Outside in the rain, Sting apparently steps out of the nWo limo and reveals his true colors to Luger. The nWo (Now with Vincent, The Giant and DiBiase) all attack Luger and leave him laying as they drive off. Pretty major moment in the development of the Sting angle.

September 16, 1996 - The night after Fall Brawl 1996 where it was revealed that Sting hadn't joined the nWo and that the limo Sting was a fake. Sting heads out and cuts his infamous "WCW can stick it" promo. Sting now considers himself a free agent, but promises that we'll all be seeing him from time to time.

November 18, 1996 - The week before World War 3. Eric Bischoff is in the ring and regretfully informs the fans that Roddy Piper refuses to sign on to wrestle Hollywood Hogan. Roddy Piper makes a surprise appearance by hitting the ring and calling Bischoff out on all of his lies. Suddenly, the nWo runs out and attacks Piper. Hollywood Hogan gets on the mic and reveals Eric Bischoff as the newest member of the nWo. Personally, I feel this is the point where the nWo officially started going downhill. Once you brought the boss into the fold, you took away the very concept of what the group was doing - invading. How can you invade something when the boss lets you? In some ways, wouldn't WCW, not the nWo, now be considered the Outsiders? Still, a big moment is a big moment.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Dean Malenko - December 30, 1996
These two wrestled about a million times in 1996 over the WCW Cruiserweight Title. Thanks to Malenko losing the belt to Ultimo Dragon 24 hours prior at Starrcade (This is when Dragon had the J-Crown as well), this is just a standard match. The commentators can't stop talking about the nWo and wondering why Roddy Piper is here tonight when he defeated Hogan at Starrcade. Malenko controls a large portion of the match. While such moves as a fireman's carry into a gut buster is nice to see, you're not going to draw in the fans interest. If you have Mysterio, let him hit all of his pretty spots. It's once things pick up with plenty of nearfalls, that the bell rings. The ten minute time limit expires. Mysterio tries to get another five minutes, but silly Rey doesn't realize that unless you're in an nWo angle, your stuff doesn't matter. It's not bad, but these two had far better matches in 1996. 2 1/2 Stars.

Overall
Once Scott Hall debuted, the attention of the disc went straight towards segments. As a result, the matches come few and far between late in the disc. This first disc does give you a pretty good idea of what was going on in WCW in late 1995 through the end of 1996. My first real complaint of the disc is ignoring everything that happened in 1995 after the first show. I'm sure the WWE just wanted to hurry up and get to the nWo stuff, but there was some gold in late 1995. Madusa debuts and throws the WWE's Woman's title in the trash and Bull Nakano/Akira Hokuto tore it up with Cutie Suzuki/Mayumi Ozaki for some woman's action. The American Males shocked WCW by defeating Harlem Heat for the WCW Tag Titles. Malenko and Eddie Guerrero would both debut. There were plenty of huge matches with the likes of Sting, Luger, Savage, Flair and Hogan. Finally, you had fuckin' Sabu! Match quality wise, the only "Bad" match was Big Bubba vs Hogan, but even that wasn't completely unwatchable. Match of the disc has to go to Finlay vs Regal though. I do wish that there would have been a little more variety in 1996. Are we really meant to believe there wasn't a single noteworthy Cruiserweight match in 1995 or 1996 until the final episode? When the main selling point is for the nWo, the WWE did manage to include nearly all of the major moments though. Pretty decent way to start off the DVD set, but I'm left wanting a little more workrate.

Disc 2 to come...

 

Continuing with the WCW line of thinking, WWE released its list of the top 50 wrestlers of WCW history...

No. 48, ahead of Jeff Jarrett and Juventud Guerrera. I can't make this up ...

http://www.wwe.com/classics/wcw/50-greatest-wcw-stars/page-4

 

Rey Mysterio's entrance music in WCW remains a favorite to this day.