BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

WCW, ECW, UPW, etc
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 12th, '14, 09:42

We open the show with Mongo noting that tonight's main event, a first time ever encounter between Hulk Hogan and Sting "should have been on pay-per-view." Yes. Even Mongo, who is now just starting his twelfth week in the wrestling business, realizes that this match should have been on PPV... but not the people who run WCW.
Bischoff guarantees us that tonight's show will be "one of the hottest wrestling shows of all time." He also calls it "the Superbowl of wrestling."

SHARK vs. SCOTT NORTON- 1/10
Norton apparently has a new nickname: "Flash." Bishcoff explained to us that this name was from Norton's arm wrestling career, and came about "because he would flash you." Mind games, I guess. Like Goldust.

Shark jumped Norton from behind. The match ended a few minutes later. That was short. Thankfully, no one was flashed.

GENE OKERLUND INTERVIEWS KEVIN SULLIVAN & JIMMY HART-
Jimmy cut a promo encouraging Sting to beat Hogan tonight. He tried to motivate Sting by pointing out that it was Sting who gave Hogan the "seal of approval" when he first came into WCW, but now Hogan has dumped him and become best friends with Savage instead. Sullivan hyped up World War 3.

EDDIE GUERRERO vs. RIC FLAIR-
Once again, Disco Inferno came out when it was time for Eddie's entrance... and the sound guy played Disco's music instead of Eddie's. Now Disco is trying to sell CDs. Why, exactly, does WCW keep Disco around? All he does is annoy other wrestlers, and he has lost every match he has had against someone who isn't a jobber. Even to an undercard guy like Alex Wright. Hell...he has even lost to actual jobbers like Mark Starr and Chris Kanyon. Why do they continue to employ this man?

The sad news is that the Eddie vs. Flair match never takes place. Why? Well Flair showed up in his street clothes and decided that he didn't want to wrestle, so he was going to let Pillman do it instead. Why was this allowed? Shouldn't Eddie have been awarded the win over Flair via forfeit? Anyway, we got...

EDDIE GUERRERO vs. BRIAN PILLMAN- 5.75/10

RANDY SAVAGE ARM INJURY VIDEO PACKAGE- okay. The announcers wonder if Savage is faking this in order to somehow betray Hogan. That's a little paranoid, don't you think?

ROAD WARRIOR HAWK vs. BIG BUBBA ROGERS- 3.5/10
In perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, there was a young child of about eight years old who had a sign that read "Big Bubba Rules."
The match was going well until the finish, which was... well.. Do you remember in TNA when Madison Rayne was using a "loaded glove" and they had this one match where she fell with her head on the glove and knocked herself out? Well WCW did that same thing here, except instead of using a glove to conceal the foreign object, Big Bubba thought he could conceal this decently-sized cylindrical object by TAPING IT TO HIS HAND. He fell because Jim Duggan showed up and tripped him. Why did Duggan trip him? Who knows? I'll assume he just wanted a fair match.
I don't remember if Madison was tripped by a third party or whether she just got knocked over and fell on the glove, so I'm not sure which finish was stupider, but either way, this was still an absolutely moronic finish.

After the match, Mongo told us that Duggan did this because he and Big Bubba were going to have a Taped Fist match. What? Since when? Where the hell did this come from? And when is this taped-fist match going to take place?

STING vs. HULK HOGAN (w/"Macho Man" Randy Savage)- 6.75/10
Sting came out wearing red and yellow. Heenan said that this was Sting trying to usurp Hogan's spot. Bischoff said that this was Sting trying to bring Hogan back to his light side roots.
When Hogan's music played, Randy Savage was the one who came out. One of his arms was in a sling to sell the injury from last week, but thankfully he had another arm, which he used to wave to the back and get Hogan to come out. Savage did this a bunch of times, but Hogan did not come out onto the ramp. Instead, Hogan (still wearing last week's Zorro mask for some reason, but thankfully not carrying the sword from last week), came out of the crowd and snuck up behind Sting. Why? No reason. All he did was tap Sting on the shoulder (which is better than the alternative of him jumping Sting form behind, but it really makes you wonder why he didn't just come out down the freakin' ramp).

At one point while he had Sting in an armlock, Hogan told Savage "I want to find out if he's with us or against us." Savage responded by giving Hogan some advice on how to go about doing this: "Lean on him, brother." In other words, they thought that the best way to get an honest answer out of Sting would be cause him physical pain. In other words, the babyfaces are here with the intent of torturing someone rather than winning the match. Actually, now that I think about it, this makes perfect sense. Not the booking philosophy behind it, mind you, but the idea that Hogan and Savage would torture someone. They did call that crazy homeless man they were taking advice from in that segment two weeks ago "the head of war crimes." They would have gotten this element of the match over better if Hogan had been trying to interrogate Sting during the match instead of chatting with Macho, but whatever.

They actually had a very good match. Hogan played the heel role here, getting the heat on Sting, but he still managed to feel like a babyface when he powered out of the Scorpion Deathlock and Hulked up. They told a good story with Sting working over Hogan's legs while Hogan worked over Sting's arm and then his back, and had some really good spots in here, like Hogan countering a Stinger Splash by catching Sting in a bearhug. A surprising amount of technical stuff from Hogan as well, which really does make you wonder why Verne wouldn't just give him the AWA World Heavyweight Title.

Unfortunately, the match ended quite prematurely, as the Dungeon of Doom showed up and attacked both guys for a "no contest" finish. Hogan and Sting fought them all off until Giant showed up and goozled them both, but Savage hit Giant in the back with a chair to break it up. Unfortunately for the babyfaces, this hurt Savage's injured arm, but it didn't hurt Giant much at all. The Giant chokeslammed Savage, but this allowed Hogan time to get a steel chair, did and Sting each grabbed one end of the chair and charged together at the Giant, knocking him over the top rope and out of the ring, showing that it could be done during World War 3. The Giant still managed to land on his feet, which I thought was really cool. The Giant wanted to keep fighting, but the rest of the Dungeon of Doom held him back.

A good go-home angle on a poor go-home show. Absolutely ALL of the hype for this show has been about the World War 3 match, which makes sense, considering that it is a first-time-ever gimmick match with SIXTY WRESTLERS competing for the WCW World Heavyweight Title, but there is a lot of other stuff on that show that it would have made sense to hype up that they didn't touch on at all.
For example, do you remember that US Title defense Sting had in Japan against Kensuke Sasaki that they hyped up on last week's show? Well apparently Sting lost the title in that match. This should have been MAJOR news, but wasn't even mentioned. Furthermore, last week's show also saw Sasaki get pinned by Chris Benoit, and as a result, Benoit will be challenging Sasaki for the US Title on the PPV. We couldn't have spared a moment of hype for this? Or how about Johnny B. Badd, who will defend the TV Title in a rematch from last month's PPV against Diamond Dallas Page. You couldn't have spared some TV time to hype up the TV Title defense?
And perhaps even more inexcusably, the two big grudge matches on the PPV: LUGER VS. SAVAGE AND STING VS. FLAIR!


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Mongo (about Norton and Shark)- "I think they've been fighting for two weeks straight now."
Considering that this feud started on the second Nitro, and this is now the twelfth, I'd say it has been a lot more than that.

2. Bobby Heenan referred to Lex Luger as both the "dark horse" and the "odds on favorite" to win World War 3. Clearly Heenan does not know what one of those two terms means.

3. Right before the Sting vs. Hogan match was about to start, Bischoff said that as much as he wanted to see this match, he doesn't want to see two great role-models for young children go at it. Why? Isn't this a great opportunity to teach the children the values of good sportsmanship?
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

badnewzxl
Posts: 2918
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:53

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by badnewzxl » Nov 12th, '14, 14:44

Disco Inferno rocks! That's why they kept him around. And Alex Wright is a great wrestler too. Both were essentially to wcw s lower card which was better than any lower card any wrestling promotion ever presented imo. Disco, Wright, La Parka, Iaukea, Regal, and several other Tv title contenders and lower guys put on some decent 5-10 minute matches to supplement the packed midcard and huge names on the main event.

At this point Disco is establishing himself; his music and dancing always took precedent over winning matches so losing to other guys at his level in inconsequential, considering beating anyone at saidlevel is just as inconsequential lol
Image

User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 12th, '14, 19:06

badnewzxl wrote:Disco Inferno rocks! That's why they kept him around. And Alex Wright is a great wrestler too. Both were essentially to wcw s lower card which was better than any lower card any wrestling promotion ever presented imo. Disco, Wright, La Parka, Iaukea, Regal, and several other Tv title contenders and lower guys put on some decent 5-10 minute matches to supplement the packed midcard and huge names on the main event.

At this point Disco is establishing himself; his music and dancing always took precedent over winning matches so losing to other guys at his level in inconsequential, considering beating anyone at saidlevel is just as inconsequential lol
My point is that it is both annoying as a viewer and is kayfabe annoying to the wrestlers (basically everyone Disco has come into contact with has been annoyed at him), and the guy never wins, so why is he employed, from a kayfabe POV? If they were doing something with him, that be one thing, but they aren't. He just shows up and bothers everyone.

La Parka's Lucha was something different. Wright was good. Regal was freakin' Regal and also had some actual kayfabe success. From everything I've seen of him in WCW and TNA, Disco isn't that good.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

badnewzxl
Posts: 2918
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:53

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by badnewzxl » Nov 13th, '14, 00:40

Big Red Machine wrote:
badnewzxl wrote:Disco Inferno rocks! That's why they kept him around. And Alex Wright is a great wrestler too. Both were essentially to wcw s lower card which was better than any lower card any wrestling promotion ever presented imo. Disco, Wright, La Parka, Iaukea, Regal, and several other Tv title contenders and lower guys put on some decent 5-10 minute matches to supplement the packed midcard and huge names on the main event.

At this point Disco is establishing himself; his music and dancing always took precedent over winning matches so losing to other guys at his level in inconsequential, considering beating anyone at saidlevel is just as inconsequential lol
My point is that it is both annoying as a viewer and is kayfabe annoying to the wrestlers (basically everyone Disco has come into contact with has been annoyed at him), and the guy never wins, so why is he employed, from a kayfabe POV? If they were doing something with him, that be one thing, but they aren't. He just shows up and bothers everyone.

La Parka's Lucha was something different. Wright was good. Regal was freakin' Regal and also had some actual kayfabe success. From everything I've seen of him in WCW and TNA, Disco isn't that good.
He had a spot tho; he was the comedy act. He went out there so he could be annoying and get beat up and he was my favorite at it. I've always found him entertaining and the more Mic and tv time he got the more over he got with the crowd.....plus I'm pretty sure he did some stuff backstage for wcw
Image

User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 13th, '14, 01:37

badnewzxl wrote:
Big Red Machine wrote:
badnewzxl wrote:Disco Inferno rocks! That's why they kept him around. And Alex Wright is a great wrestler too. Both were essentially to wcw s lower card which was better than any lower card any wrestling promotion ever presented imo. Disco, Wright, La Parka, Iaukea, Regal, and several other Tv title contenders and lower guys put on some decent 5-10 minute matches to supplement the packed midcard and huge names on the main event.

At this point Disco is establishing himself; his music and dancing always took precedent over winning matches so losing to other guys at his level in inconsequential, considering beating anyone at saidlevel is just as inconsequential lol
My point is that it is both annoying as a viewer and is kayfabe annoying to the wrestlers (basically everyone Disco has come into contact with has been annoyed at him), and the guy never wins, so why is he employed, from a kayfabe POV? If they were doing something with him, that be one thing, but they aren't. He just shows up and bothers everyone.

La Parka's Lucha was something different. Wright was good. Regal was freakin' Regal and also had some actual kayfabe success. From everything I've seen of him in WCW and TNA, Disco isn't that good.
He had a spot tho; he was the comedy act. He went out there so he could be annoying and get beat up and he was my favorite at it. I've always found him entertaining and the more Mic and tv time he got the more over he got with the crowd.....plus I'm pretty sure he did some stuff backstage for wcw
Just giving my observations based on what I have seen so far. He hasn't been entertaining in any way.

He helped book, but that was later on in 2000. He was the moron who wanted to book an angle where Lance Storm and Mikey Tenay would be revealed to be space aliens.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

badnewzxl
Posts: 2918
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:53

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/20/1995 Nitro (Hogan vs. Sting I)

Post by badnewzxl » Nov 13th, '14, 03:24

He's my all time fav November; great at getting beat, I tell ya!
Image

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests