WCW Monday Nitro – October 23rd, 1995

Greetings. Yeah, I know we skipped a week, and that’s my fault. The place I got the shows from had mislabeled them, so when I went to upload this I realized my mistake. I looked back on the missing show, and nothing of too much interest happened. This is the important one, as it’s the go home show for Halloween Havoc. Plus…the ice block! SULLIVAN!

WCW Champions as of October 25th, 1995:

• Heavyweight: Hulk Hogan [defeated Ric Flair, July 17th, 1994]
• US: Sting [defeated Meng, June 18th, 1995]
• TV: DDP [defeated Renegade, September 17th, 1995]
• Tag-Team: The American Males[defeated Harlem Heat, September 18th, 1995]

Nassau Space Coliseum, Huntsville, Alabama. Your party hosts are Mongo McMichael, Eric Bischoff, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.

Macho Man Randy Savage vs Kurasawa

Kurasawa attacks before the bell and keeps momentum on his side with a simple tactic of kicks & chops. Every time Macho tries to turn the tides, Kuraswa vetoes it, with a chop or a kick. They keep talking about how he broke the arm of Road Warrior Hawk, thus he keeps working Macho’s arm, which is a bit surprising, as twisting the arm keeps him from chopping or kicking. Jesus, does Kura have a deal with Ted Turner where he’s paid per chop & kick or something? Is there a bomb attached to the arena and if this match gets exciting then it’ll blow? I’m not joking when I say, out of the entire six minutes that this match went on, Kurasawa controlled the WHOLE thing, and did ONE wrestling move. ONE. Macho also did one, which was the elbow drop. He got in zero offense the whole time before all of a sudden hitting the elbow. What the hell was this?

Macho Man hit Kurasawa with something that wasn’t a chop or a kick, so I’m sure he’ll be fined, for the pin at 6:03 | DUD

YES! It’s the YETAY ice block! I’m so happy! The leader of the Dungeon of Doom, who looks like the world’s first alcoholic zombie, tells us that this block of ice was carved out of Mt. Everest by some sherpas. Yes, he’s literally telling an arena of people, along with the millions watching at home, that this block of ice is real and contains an insurance policy. I just can’t get over the fact that grown men wrote this. Perhaps if they’d just been in a car accident and had a giant tree limb jutting out of their skull I could understand it, but I truly doubt any large pieces of timber were protruding from the skulls of the men who felt this needed to be on national TV.

Mean Gene Interview:
Hulkster comes out and says that he’s gonna hold onto his black gloves, because everybody knows what a guy with black gloves is capable of. How is that suppose to scare The Giant? I don’t recall OJ Simpson killing any members of the Dungeon of Doom. He says once he’s done he’s gonna drag the Giant’s carcas around with his Harley. Well okie dokie.

This week on WCW Saturday Night we’ll see The American Males face Harlem Heat for the tag-titles, Lex Luger vs the Shark, and we’ll hear more from ‘The Bad Guy’ Hulk Hogan. I think that’s the promo where Macho joins the darkside and does a promo while wielding a broadsword.

Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs Eddie Gurerro & Mr. JL

Ah c’mon, give this more than 3 minutes. Eddie & Chris start, delivering the goods you’re use to. Eddie ends up outside with Dean, being held as Chris suicide dives towards them, but Eddie ducks out at the last minute. He then heads into the ring and chucks Mr. JL to the outside on the both of them.

Of course we cut to the back because Scott Norton & The Shark are having a disagreement! Well thank God we cut away from the innovative & interesting action to see someone with sharkteeth painted on his beard.

Eddie hits a ridiculous move where he twists Malenko’s hand, runs up the ropes, leaps off, and catches Benoit’s head with his legs, tossing them both. Soon after, Wright trips up Benoit as he’s coming off the ropes, giving JL a chance to put Chris in a roll up for the win. Great stuff that had Benoit & Malenko’s double-teaming maneuvers & heel tactics as sharp as everything else in the ring. JL more than held his own, and really should have helped to land him a solid position with the company. I’m shocked these guys got as long as they did too. Great stuff, obviously, and one of the clear examples of why WCW should have never gone out of business.

JL pins Benoit with a roll-up at 9:09 | ***

Afterward, Brian Pillman hits Eddie with a DDT on the outside and gives the rest the 4 fingers.

Harlem Heat w/ Sherri vs Sting & Lex Luger

Sting starts it, but doesn’t hang around long. Once Luger is in, Stevie Ray & Booker T pretty much have his number the whole time. Thankfully at one point we take a break from the action to look at Sherri look at Polaroids of her and the Colonel. Luger finally gets the hot tag to Sting who takes out The Heat all on his own. After a brief break in momentum via a side-kick from Stevie Ray, Stinger gets it back when he nails Stevie with a flying clothesline and gets himself the pin. Really not much to talk about. An average TV match, but it made the Heat look like they deserve their belts back.

Sting pins Stevie Ray after a flying clothesline at 7:39 | **

Immediately afterward Taskmaster & Giant hit the ring. Luger & Sting get chokeslammed, which brings out Macho, shortly followed by Hogan. He tells Macho he wants The Giant by himself. He nails Giant twice, but it does nothing, much to his shock. After getting hit with a forearm to his back, Hulkster Hulks up and gets the Giant reeling with a few fists. This brings out The Dungeon, and YES! The ice is opening up!

Ah man, we literally get a second worths of footage of the YETAY before they go off the air. What a rip. I’d like to think they made that choice because if you thought he’d be at the PPV, you wouldn’t buy it. However, those who were stoked for the Monster Truck fight and World Heavyweight Championship match probably didn’t have too discerning of taste.

 Pretty tame for a go-home show. The only angle they mentioned was Hogan & The Giant’s. Flair vs The Horsemen wasn’t even mentioned, nor did they even mention what else may be on the card. But then again, this is WCW, so the fact they mentioned their main-event angle is pretty good. Other than that, the rest of the show was alright. The Kurasawa guy is God-awful, and it’s pretty shocking he didn’t get a main event run. Benoit/Malenko vs JL/Guerrero was as good as expected, although not one worth hunting down. Also, we got the ice block, which is of course fantastic.

Till next week, dig it…