BRM Reviews the 11/6/1995 Nitro

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 11/6/1995 Nitro

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 3rd, '14, 01:45

The gimmick of tonight’s show was that we the fans could pay $0.99 to vote on who would be in the main event, from a list of choices. The way it worked was that there was a “red locker room” and a “blue locker room,” and the top vote-getter from each would face off in the main event. Among these choices was Dave Sullivan.

Randy Savage is in the building, but isn’t cleared to wrestle.

COBRA vs. THE GIANT (w/Jimmy Hart)- squash.
Cobra came out to absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
Giant came out wearing the WCW World Heavyweight Title belt. He intimidated Dave Penzer into saying this was a title match. He then gave Cobra a chokeslam and pinned him.

MEAN GENE IN THE RED LOCKER ROOM- just a bunch of guys yelling and shouting, aside from Shark and Scott Norton, who were shoving each other and actually working their angle, so good for them.

TONY SCHIAVONE IN THE BLUE LOCKER ROOM- same as above, but Sting got to tell us that he wants the Nature Boy. Jim Duggan kept walking in front of the camera and throwing things. He might have been on something, but he’s also Jim Duggan, so you never know.

LIVE INTERVIEW WITH HULK HOGAN FROM VENICE BEACH- what the f*ck?
First there was a guy in a Captain Nemo costume playing guitar, singing a rock n’ roll song about Hogan. Then we panned over to Hogan who was sitting next to what must be a fantastic Randy Savage impersonator, because they just told us that this was live, and they had also told us that Savage was backstage throwing things because he wasn’t cleared to compete tonight. This, of course, begs the question: why does Hulk Hogan hang out with a Randy Savage impersonator?

Anyway, Hogan and the Macho doppelganger are seated on a bench, and there are a bunch of people standing around in the background. Seated on the ground between Hogan and not-Savage is someone who appears to be a babbling homeless man. They referred to him as “the brother.” Hogan also referred to him as “the head of war crimes.” NO BABYFACE SHOULD EVER HANG AROUND WITH THIS MAN!
To make matters even worse, the Randy Savage impersonator tells Hogan that he is “too emotionally involved in the situation” to be able to be wrestle well (or something like that). Thus, he offers the following plan: Hogan will stay here in Venice Beach, while Savage will go back to WCW and determine “who is friend and who is foe.” And who came up with this plan? THE CRAZY BABBLING HOMELESS WAR CRIMINAL! And they’re going to follow it!
Well… maybe we’ll get a segment where the real Randy Savage and the fake Randy Savage meet each other.
Hogan closed the promo with the following line: “Now that I’ve got the stench of Venice Beach back in my blood, brother, what’cha gonna do when the dark side of Hulkamania destroys you?”

Huh. It seems that Eric Bischoff must have been reading over my shoulder as I was typing, because when we got back from this video, he clarified that this interview happened earlier today. Then why did you say it was live before?


THE RENEGADE vs. THE TASKMASTER (w/Jimmy Hart)- 1.25/10
Jimmy Hart spent the whole match yelling at The Renegade, claiming that he “could have been the next Hulk Hogan.” After the match, Jimmy Hart wiped The Renegade’s face paint off. That was actually a cool angle.

MEAN GENE FROM THE RED LOCKER ROOM- Flair cut a great promo. Also, the lights went out.

CHRIS BENOIT vs. EDDIE GUERRERO- 6/10
Eric Bischoff went on and on about the great cruiserweight action in WCW and warned us not to turn away for even a second. Then the camera cut to show us a bunch of Japanese guys watching the show at a nice dining table, eating food.
Anyway, of these Japanese men, they pointed out Sunny Oono. There were about six of them, and sitting on the end, wearing his mask, of course, was Jushin Liger. You’d think that not only would a big name (and a former WCW star) like Liger have been mentioned, but you’d think that just the fact that he was the only guy out of six wearing a wacky mask would warrant at least a mention.

Eddie got the win, but Benoit’s feet were on the ropes and ref didn’t notice it. Of the three announcers, the only one who was in any way upset that this man just got cheated out of a match was the heel announcer, Bobby Heenan.

TONY SCHIAVONE IN THE RED LOCKER ROOM- once again, the only guy who got to talk was Sting. He was furious that not only did Flair set him up at Halloween Havoc, but he manipulated little children to do it, and that is unforgivable!
Duggan was now throwing things around at the back of the room. Brian Knobbs was encouraging him.

When we came back from commercial Bischoff announced that the fans had voted for Sting vs. Flair. Gee. The two biggest stars on the ballots by far, who were also the only guys who got to talk, and also wanted to wrestle each other, were the guys the fans voted for. It’s funny how that works out.

RIC FLAIR vs. STING- 5.5/10
Of course, with the great angle that they did at Halloween Havoc, giving this singles match away is the equivalent of saving up all of your paychecks for the year so that you can stuff them all into an oil drum and set them on fire.
When Sting reversed a figure four leg lock by rolling over to reverse the pressure, Mongo said “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody get out of that hold like that,” which should tell you how much preparation he did before taking this job.
When Sting got up after the figure four, he was limping around and selling his knee. Flair got a running start and kicked Sting right in the injured knee… and this somehow made Sting’s knee all better, because he stopped selling it from this point on. That was dumb.
The match was decent, but it would have been a lot better if Sting had actually sold. Sting made Flair tap clean in the middle of the ring. Okay then. Feud over. That was anti-climactic.

POST-MATCH ANGLE- Sting kept the Scorpion Deathlock locked on for a long time, even as the ref told him to let go. A bunch of babyfaces then showed up and pulled Sting off. At no point did the announcers mention anything about Sting being DQed for excessive punishment and the decision being reversed, so as far as I can tell, the only reason they did this match was to ensure that no money at all was made off of this feud.
Sting then went back and put the hold on again. Lex Luger came out and talked Sting out of it. Everyone was baffled by this because Luger is a heel now. Sting and Luger left together, and the announcers put over the fact that Luger has Sting’s ear. This was a good segment, but I thought the Luger stuff was particularly excellent. I’ve always loved the way that no matter if Luger was a babyface or a heel, he and Sting were still always able to be friends.

MEAN GENE INTERVIEWS THE DUNGEON OF DOOM- Jimmy Hart reveals that he wrote a clause into the contract for the WCW World Heavyweight Title match at Halloween Havoc that states that the title can could change hands by DQ, and Hogan never knew about it because Jimmy had his power of attorney and signed the contract on Hulks’ behalf. Okay. I can buy that. But if this was the case, shouldn't WCW have recognized Giant as the champion and told the announcers to do so, rather than giving us two weeks of ambiguity?
The Dungeon of Doom all laughed evilly at this revelation, but a guy from the WCW legal department showed up and said that because of the “dubious nature” of the DQ, they are declaring the title vacant, and will award it to whoever wins the World War III battle royale. The Giant didn’t want to give the belt up, but did so after Sullivan cut a promo saying that no one could eliminate the Giant from the battle royale, so Giant would just easily win it back.

Throughout the show, they kept pushing that Hogan was “on the dark side,” which is amusing because The Dark Side was the name of the Team The Undertaker was captaining at Survivor Series in just a few weeks.


An okay Nitro. Next week’s looks more exciting, though, as we will get Dean Malenko vs. Sting, and Eddie Guerrero challenging Johnny B. Badd for the WCW TV Title.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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