WCW Monday Nitro - Monday, 11/17/97

By Bill

Trivia Question: These two questions were previously in the Q&A and both of them had conflicting answers from people who were sure of the answer. Anyway, I got (hopefully) definitive answers from a reference book. First, the Beverly Brothers were Wayne "The Train" Bloom and "Mean" Mike Enos. Which was Beau and which was Blake? Likewise, when Harlem Heat were known as the Ebony Experience, which was Kane and which was Kole?
The mailbag:
- From Sam Brady with the subject "Come Again?"
  Eric Bischoff at the beginning of Nitro:
  
  "...I've surrounded myself with the greatest athletes in the business..."
  Five feet away, grinning his face off? Vincent.
  
  'nuff said.
- From Joseph Marshman:
  Did you happen to catch the commercial for the WCW vs nWo Nintendo 64 video game? They mentioned they will have 40 moves per wrestler! Do you happen to know the other 36 moves they needed to make-up for Lex Luger?
Technically, I don't think this is a rumor since Stevie Richards himself seems to have put it in his own AOL folder. It seems that Stevie has left the wrestling business entirely, possibly permanently. He has glowing words for Terry Taylor but says that even though Raven was a great mentor, Raven is one of the reasons Stevie is leaving the business.
Whatever.
In case you're wondering why the cruiserweight title changed hands last Monday and they're doing another Misterio-Guerrero match for WWIII, I think WCW is going with what works. Their match at Halloween Havoc saved the overall card, and a number of people are saying it was match of the year in WCW.
By the way, if you have ANY Arn Anderson memorabilia, action figures, trading cards, color photos, or magazine pictures that you might be willing to part with, please let me know. I will pay a fair price, if you don't want to just give it to me as thanks for providing you this Web page. O:-)
I already have a pretty good collection of articles over the years. More of those only do me good if they have information I don't already have.
MiCasa has the diary of the entire WWF Bret Hart double-cross. Supposedly, Bret Hart has seen it and said that it is more or less right on the money. Even if it turns out to be fiction, it makes for fascinating reading.
As for my belief that it's all a work, I was wrong. I got irrefutable confirmation that Bret is coming to WCW. Oh, well, but then again, I'm that one out of every five dentists who recommends gum with sugar for their patients that chew gum.
And, now, on to the show...

Show starts off with the nWo and Scott Hall's "Did you come here to see..." schtick. They taunt Zbyszko. Nash: "Sit down or I'll cut off your Medicare!" Nash makes fun of the Giant, too. Bischoff has another surprise. Hulk Hogan. Whoopee. Oh, holy smokes!! It's Rick Rude!! Rude: "Oh, what a difference a day makes!" Rude says it is wrong for Michaels to claim to be the champion and it is wrong for McMahon to tell the referee to ring the bell to steal the belt from Bret Hart. Rude says it was right for Bret to leave a sinking ship. Rude threatens Sting.
- Starrcade ticket sales broke all wrestling ticket sales opening records.
- Wow, Rick Rude jumps ship, too. Sort of reminds me of everyone leaving the AWA a number of years ago.
Nitro Girls.
Ray Traylor comes out to give a soliloquy about how he'll meet anyone face-to-face at any time. Thus, the nWo comes out and he gets punked.
- This is shaping up to be like that Nitro last year when most of the WCW stars were in Japan, except for Macho, and the nWo completely took over.
Meng pinned Glacier with the Goozle in a clean job. YES!!!!!
- Ya' know, if the nWo is going to punk somebody, here's a good candidate.
- Supposedly, Sting was seriously hurt in last week's attack.
- 11,000 tickets sold on Saturday for Starrcade. Tickets are still available, though.
- When Meng and Barbarian start their mudhole stomp, "The Cat" Ernest Miller attempts to make the save. He is rewarded with a Goozle as well. Yes!
- This push for Meng is, I think, to give him credibility for the rumored upcoming WCW Toughman Division.
- DDP talks about Bret Hart. Can't believe he's going nWo.
"Das Blunderkid" Alex Wright defeating Steve "Mongo" McMichael via DQ when Mongo shoved Nick Patrick aside as Mongo tried to stomp Alex Wright out in the corner.
- The Queen provides a continual distraction for Mongo during the match.
- Mongo vs. Goldberg has been signed for WWIII.
Nitro Girls. Schiavone: "Isn't it nice to watch the Nitro Girls?" Zbyszko: "I'd rather punch Scott Hall in the mouth."
Rey Misterio, Jr. pinned "Lionheart" Chris Jericho with a hurricarana.
- First-ever singles meeting for these two.
- The biggest Nitro ever is going to be at the Georgia Dome on 1/25.
- Handshake to start the match.
- Backflip by Misterio off the top rope and falls right on his ass. Whoops.
- Super-gorilla-press-slam by Jericho off the top rope! Wow!! Then Jericho starts dragging Misterio by the mask around the outside of the ring.
- The finish was set up by a double-bomb by Jericho who then went for a triple-bomb but went to the well once too often.
- After the match, Jericho came up behind Misterio and turned him around. The cameras cut to the replay leaving you to wonder what happened. Tenay later explained that they hugged. Awwww...
- Chris Benoit with a promo for Bret Hart, not believing Bret would join the nWo.
Back from commercial, Schiavone is going on about how powerful the nWo would be with Bret Hart. Bischoff interrupts and starts trash talking Zbyszko. Bischoff walks off, but Zbyszko refers to Bischoff's diaper. Bischoff comes back to slap Larry and Larry comes down to the floor. And, surprise, here comes the nWo second team for a punking. Hey, here comes Dillinger to finally do his job and stop the nWo! Oh, wait, he's just tackling a fan who jumped the railing. (Must not be the "fan" from Halloween Havoc, Dillinger let him take a beating :-) ) Actually, that guy really tried to tackle Bischoff and Bischoff ducked him. Larry takes a beating and the nWo second team leaves.
"Diamond" Dallas Page pinned Villano V following a diamond cutter.
- Kimberly comes out for DDP's entrance.
- DDP took a beating from both Villano IV and V during the match.
- For good measure after the match, DDP gave Villano IV a Diamond Cutter from the top rope. Heenan: "That's Villano Zero right now!"
- Page left through the crowd.
"Iceman" Dean Malenko and WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero went to a non-finish when neither man could answer the ten-count in the ring.
- Shirtless guys with "nWo 4 Life" on their chests. One letter per person.
- There's that arm flick by Malenko.
- Big ECW sign in camera range during the match.
- Rey Misterio, Jr. comes out during the match to scout his future opponent(s).
- We return from a commercial right into an eye poke by Guerrero. It was pretty funny.
- Guerrero offers his hand and Malenko clobbers him.
- Another shoot-style finish. Big belly to back by Malenko from the top turnbuckle. Guerrero looks legit hurt and we smarks think Malenko is staying down so the match can end without Malenko winning the title. As we go to commercial, we see Guerrero in pain talking to the trainers. Granted, Guerrero may have been legit hurt (they replayed the spot and it looked rough), but as for the shoot-style finishes, remember you heard it here first.
Another lame Nitro Party Pack winner. The grand prize will be awarded in a few weeks.
WCW World Television Champion Saturn made Scotty "The Cyclops" Riggs submit to the Rings of Saturn.
- Scotty Riggs has new music. Stare's down Raven's flock on the way to the ring...with one eye, of course.
- Kidman gave one last invitation to Riggs to join the Flock. No dice.
- Riggs gets suplexed out of ring and loses his eye patch.
- The bandage eventually comes off. Hey, that eye's not hurt! What gives?! Riggs keeps the eye closed to sell the injury.
- Wow!!! What a great work!! The bandage was supposed to come off!! Riggs has one of those cloudy contacts in his eye like Jake Roberts had after Rick Martel sprayed perfume in his eyes.
- Swan dive by Riggs onto Raven's flock from the ring.
Nitro Girls. My favorite, Spice, has a solo.
Steiners and DiBiase come to the ring for a match against Vicious and Delicious and get punked by the nWo on the way to the ring.
"The Total Package" Lex Luger defeated WCW U.S. Champion Curt Hennig via DQ when Curt Hennig threw Luger into referee Nick Patrick outside the ring.
- Hennig still has Flair's robe with the arm's cut off.
- Ya' know, if I were fighting Curt Hennig, I wouldn't sit up in the middle of the ring so he could give me the somersault snapmare.
- Sleeperhold by Hennig. One, two arm drops by the referee. Third, the arm stays up! And a belly-to-back by Luger. Does the sleeper work for anyone except Piper?
- After the DQ, Hennig cracked Luger with the belt and started ragtagging him. The Giant came out to chase Hennig off and make the save on Luger.
The Giant defeated Scott Hall via DQ when the nWo rushed the ring as the Giant was setting up for a chokeslam.
- Kevin joined the announcing team for the match, uninvited of course.
- The Giant imitates the Luger flex and roar after thowing Hall in the corner.
- As the nWo was doing their mudhole stomp, Public Enemy, The Villanos, Jericho, Regal, Malenko, Glacier, Meng, and everyone else in WCW join the fray in what was basically a big promo for WWIII to end the show.

Cornbread and Chez Whitey send in the following arena report:

We're coming live from the Crown in Cincinnati. It looks real nice inside since they remodeled it. There were lots of rednecks and college students in the crowd. Our group was from Ohio State, and we made the trip on Monday afternoon.
Special Nitro Girls routine! Moonsaults, splits, .....and very cool jiggling!
Dark Match: Sorry ass Canadian guy lost to Sorry Ass Cincinnati guy. The Canadian was the heel and was in control most of the match. NOT worth remembering.
nWo came out. Definite pro-WCW crowd. Lots of boos for the nWo. Hogan got a big pop. Rude got a bigger pop than Hogan.
Meng beat Glacier. No one liked Glacier. Pro Meng crowd, lots of cheers when he won. No one knew who Ernest Miller was, after six months!
Traylor got beat up, no one cared
Mysterio got a big pop, but no one cared about Jericho. Lots of cool moves.
Mongo and Alex Wright. Mongo got a HUGE pop! Alex wasn't really cheered or booed. Lots of Fours and Whoos.
DDP killed the Villano Family after a barrage of diamond cutters. Lots of anti-luchador chants.
Larry Zbyszko got punked by the nWo. I don't know if it was on TV, but a fan got loose and got a couple good licks on Bischoff.
Heenan got a good pop when he came to the booth. There were a couple "Weasel" chants. His pop wasn't as big as Larry's when he came out.
Guerrero and Malenko double counted out. The commercial in the middle of the match made it seem long and boring. The rollups were pretty cool though. Lots of "Eddie Sucks" chants.
Saturn kicked Riggs' Ass! Riggs controlled most of the match, and the highlight was when he jumped into Raven's Nest. Lots of ECW chants after that, even though I didn't know it was that popular here. Billy Kidman does talk a lot of s**t to the crowd during matches and commercial breaks. Seems generally interested in the Nitro Girls (but who isn't).
Steiners got punked. They were way over here in Cincinnati, but we here at OSU don't have a high tolerance for punks from Michigan. When they started getting clubbered we sang the "I don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan" song. A few people joined in, others stared in amazement, too stupid to know what was up. It was funny though. A fan came in and began running back in forth into the ropes. Since security was over by the Steiners, no one caught him at first. He made it back into the crowd before being caught.
Lex got a lot of cheers, Hennig got booed. It was a pretty good match, but everyone was disappointed in Flair not being there. Lex worked the match well, utilizing all four of his moves, sans the rack. nWo came out, Giant made the save.
Giant and Hall. During the commercial Giant played to the crowd, and even joked with the ref about chokeslamming him. During Hall's trip to the ring, Nash made his way to the booth. You might not believe this, but Hall threw a toothpick in his opponent's face! Hall had been working the crowd all night, with "almost" crotch chops, a few crotch chops, and the Frankenstein walk. A good match, a stupid ending. The last three guys in the ring were DDP, Giant, and Rey Jr.
Guys who didn't wrestle but were in the "battle royal": Public Enemy, Steve Regal, Chris Benoit, Mortis.
As we were driving away from the Coliseum, ooops, I mean the Crown, we saw Konnan and Villanos part IV + V. The Vs weren't wearing their masks but they were wearing their tights under thier coats, so everyone recognized them. Konnan was leading them, and he left the arena in his jeans and flannel, with the nWo shirt underneath. I called at him from the hoo-ride and he gave me the head nod that can only be translated as "whats up"!
In all, this show was much better than the Raw here in September, and it was worth the car ride and the cops that pulled us over for no damn reason! :)

Stevie from Florence, KY sends in the following arena report:

After the show went off the air, Hogan and Savage made a quick exit and the other wrestlers had a battle royal lasting around five minutes, with Giant, DDP, and Mysterio the last remaining. Mysterio then left and Giant was nursing his injured hand, he gave the chokeslam sign to the crowd, DDP then gave the self high five and they left ending the show.
Much of the crowd began to boo because of no Sting or Flair, especially Flair, there were chants for him all night. Many of the fans left disappointed by what was an otherwise good show.
Some Highlights: Riggs jump from the top rope into the crowd was impressive, probably the best move of the night.
The Guerrero/Malenko match was really good, but the ending took a lot away from it. There were reports that Guerrero was actually hurt, but from my seat I could see backstage a little bit, and as he neared the ramp the trainers let him down and he walked under his own power the rest of the way, with no noticeable limp. [Note from Bill: Shoot-style endings...you heard it here first.]
When the nWo punked Zbyszko on TV you caught a brief glimpse of the fan trying to get Bischoff. This guy was wild looking, he appeared to be a middle age man, with real curly hair. When Zybszko started getting beat, the guy climbed out of the stands, and came running full speed toward Bischoff, reminding me of a middle age country boy Ultimate Warrior :) He came right at Bischoff but Bischoff ducked him, and he then took a shot from Norton (who is so big his nWo vest looks like a billboard) and took a good beating by security.
A college guy climbed into the ring when the Steiners were getting beat up and bounced off the ropes, climbed on, then waved to the crowd and was back in the crowd before security even saw him, as they were preoccupied by the action on the ramp. They eventually caught him and he got the extra rough treatment for making them look like jerks.
Just one more thing I enjoy your site, and for anyone who can't already tell on TV the Nitro Girls are HOT!, the highlight of the show for me.

Trivia Answer: Mike Enos was Blake and Wayne Bloom was Beau. Stevie Ray was Kane and Booker T. was Kole.
See you for Nitro again next week.

WCW Monday Nitro - Monday, 11/17/97

By Bill

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