WCW Monday Nitro - Monday, 06/07/99

WCW Monday Nitro - Monday, 06/07/99

Cleveland, OH

By Wade

This should win me a Pulitzer Prize for photography...


Bull sends the following arena report:

WCW Nitro last Monday in Cleveland, Ohio opened up to a close to sold out show with a pair of tag team dark matches starting at 7:30 PM.

The first match featured 4 unknown wrestlers. I couldn't catch the names Penzer announced, but two of the wrestlers, one on each team, wore very similar outfits, looking like they're normally a tag team themselves. The outfits were black with various "pop culture" insignias and patterns air-brished on, like Superman "S Shields" and the like. Not a bad match, though all four men were a little sloppy. Though not much more than your average Konnan match (grin).

The second match featured the tag team of the "King Pinz". They came out in bowling shirts and waving around a Bowling Pin and a Bowling Ball. The back of their shirts said "City Champions, Youngstown, Ohio". Youngstown is a city about an hour or two south-east of Cleveland, so they may have been local wrestlers.

The other tag teamn was formed of "Leadfoot" Jerry Flynn and a man in a weird mask named Sharkboy. Sharkboy performed at the Pillman Memorial show, and was fairly amusing in his match at Nitro. He did most of the ring work for his team, and it was downright hilarious when he "bit" one of the King Piz in the butt. His mask covered his entire head, had a fin on the top, and had white, jagged "Shark teeth" for a mouth. A bit gross, but funny.

The crowd was really into the entire show, and unlike his few TV appearances, DJ Ran actually played a few decent rock songs during commercial breaks. The Nitro Girls were great up close (I was in the second row, just behind the announcers, and Fyre waved to me and another guy who had signs for her :)).

During a commercial break, after his normal segment, Scott Steiner egged the crowd on by saying "Cleveland Sucks". Then he managed to get pelted with anything handy and throwable. Unfortunately, so did everyone in the first ten rows or so. It wouldn't have been so bad had he not kept taunting the crowd throughout this. I know I got nailed with a half full beer, and so did a lot of kids in attendance. There was also a lot of candy and what sounded like loose change being thrown. Very dangerous.

To make the "sewage" a little more realistic, they used some sort of sulfer to give the ring area a nice, unhealthy rotten egg smell during the Macho Man sewage skits. Nasty stuff there. Also, I think everyone in the first six rows lost some eyebrow hair when the fireworks in the ring posts went off at the beginning of the show. Man, those give off some serious heat!

At the end of the show, after Lex came out to help Sting, they celebrated in the ring a bit, and Sting kept jumping into Lex's arms. Lex missed the catch once, and Sting just barely managed to not fall flat.

Overall, a great Nitro, and a ton of fun to watch. I've been to three WCW events thus far, one a house show, and two Nitros (this one and the one a few months ago in Cincinnati), and this was the first time we weren't very high up in the upper deck. Great fun. If you ever get the chance to go to a live wrestling event, especially if you can get floor seats, definitely do it.


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