BRM Reviews the First Ever WCW Nitro (9/4/1995)

[Big Red Machine]

Eric Bischoff and the debuting Steve McMichael welcomed us to the show. Then Bobby Heenan showed up, getting a HUGE pop.

JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER vs. FLYIN' BRIAN PILLMAN- 6.5/10
Liger was introduced as "one of Japan's most popular wrestlers," which would have been very embarrassing if he hadn't gotten a big pop.
They had a very good match that while it probably felt more crazy, fast-paced and revolutionary back in the day (which was why it was a perfect choice for an opener for the first-ever Nitro), still manages to retain a bit of that wonder today through the reaction of the crowd and the announcers. The crowd popped big for all of he head-scissors takeovers (despite the fact that Pillman was having enough trouble with them that Bischoff was forced to call it out in order to try to cover for it), but barely popped when Pillman, the babyface, gave Liger a vertical suplex out of the ring and down to the floor (Liger might have even bumped himself on the apron first, too). At one point Pillman got crotched on the top rope, and the referee cringed in sympathy in such a fantastic way that I couldn't help but laugh. Liger worked over Pillman's back. Pillman won with a roll-up, and we got some good sportsmanship after the match.


Heenan had apparently been trash-talking Mongo on WCW Saturday Night, so Mongo took some shots at Heenan, calling him first "Bobby the Stain" and then "Bobby Hernia." After the second one, Heenan said "oh, so we're gonna start this now? Name-calling? We're gonna resort to that now? Okay." and I couldn't not help squeal in anticipation of the things Heenan would come up with to call Mongo. You could just tell that this was going to be a massacre in the leagues the of the squash matches on the recently-cancelled WWF Wrestling Challenge.

STING PROMO- good hype for his match with Flair tonight.

HOGAN PROMO- this was taped earlier in the day at Hogan's restaurant: Pastamania. He was surrounded by throngs of adoring young fans shoving posters at him for him to sign. Also, Jimmy Hart was there, holding up Hogan's WCW World Heavyweight Title. Hogan said that he would put the title on the line in tonight's main event against Big Bubba Rogers. Hogan then asked "with Pastamania runnin' through my brain, who's gonna beat Big Bubba tonight, Hulkamaniacs?" And the children all shouted "HULK HOGAN!"
Then he said the following: "When I'm all done dragging him around the Mall of America and all of my Pastamaniacs are tearing their WCW shirts off, brother, I'm gonna give Big Bubba a dose of my Hulkaroos up there (*he points at the menu*) and then I'm gonna bodyslam him again." I swear to G-d he actually said all of this.
He then concluded the interview by asking "what you gonna do in the Mall of America, brother, when Hulk Hogan, Pastamania, and all of my Pastamaniacs run wild on you?" which is exactly how I imagine a commercial for Pastamania would end.

SINGLES MATCH THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FOR THE WCW UNITED STATES TITLE: Sting(c) vs. Ric Flair- 4/10
The announcers were chattering away while the ring announcer was doing the entrances, so I couldn't hear a thing, including anything the ring announcer may have said. The ref held the belt up as if this was a title match, but there was no graphic on the screen to indicate that it was (or even anything in Sting's graphic during his entrance to acknowledge that he was the champion). The announcers never mentioned that this was a title match during the match, so I'll assume it wasn't, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

After the entrances, Lex Luger showed up. Bischoff saw this and immediately asked "what the hell is he doing here?!" before ordering someone to "get the camera off him!" The cameraman didn't listen. Someone called for security. The fans all chanted for Luger, which really helped this feel like a HUGE moment.
They finally did keep the camera off of Luger, and he apparently left, so Flair and Sting started to wrestle.

They shined Sting up for a LONG time before he missed a diving splash and Flair got the heat. Wait. No. Never mind. Sting just no-sold the first move Flair tried, which was a vertical suplex. Apparently if Sting himself propels himself into the mat from high up in the air, that hurts him, but if Flair propels Sting down into the mat from high in the air, it doesn't hurt him? Sting sold after his own superplex, too, which seems to add credence to my ridiculous theory.
Arn Anderson also came out soon after the commercial break, but we didn't know whose side he was on because he and Flair had been feuding recently. After the superplex, Sting decided that now would be a good time to allow himself to be distracted by Arn (whom he and Flair bad both been successfully ignoring for a few minutes now), which allowed Flair to hit a chop block. Flair locked in the Figure Four, but Sting almost immediately started to go into his comeback by beating his chest and trying to roll to his stomach to reverse the pressure, but Flair grabbed the rope for illegal leverage to stop this. The ref caught Flair and counted for him to break the hold, but Flair refused, getting himself DQed.

I'm not going to say that this wasn't entertaining in it's own way, because between Sting's charisma and Flair's selling, it was... but Flair was never given the chance to get any heat, so I really didn't have any reason at all to cheer for Sting, so I couldn't really get into the match. The crowd went nuts, though.

Heenan referred to Flair as a seven-time world champion, but when we came back from a commercial during the match, Bischoff called him an eleven-time world champion. There was a point where I would not put it past WCW to switch the world title multiple times during one commercial break, but that's about five years off, so I'll just assume one of them didn't get the memo.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Arn got in the ring and broke the hold by just pulling Flair's leg off of Sting's with his brute strength. Flair shoved Arn, Arn took his jacket off, and they brawled a bit before Flair ran. Arn went back to ring... but then all of a sudden something totally different started to happen. Some big guy jumped the guardrail and wanted to fight with Mongo. Then Randy Savage came out (to a big pop) and started to brawl with that guy. Then Savaged challenged the mystery man to a match, which the mystery man accepted, but Bischoff told them it couldn't happen because the mystery man hadn't signed a contract yet. Savage got in the ring and wanted to fight... and it looks like Sting and Arn just vanished into thin air? Are they friends now? Does Sting still not like Arn for everything the Horsemen have done over the years? We don't know. They just disappeared.
Bischoff tried to restore order, and when that didn't work, he threw us to a highlight package for Sabu. Yes. Sabu. In WCW.

SABU VIDEO PACKAGE- terrible. They used this blurring/motion-tracking effect, which made me nauseous.

PLUG FOR WCW SATURDAY NIGHT- Good. More importantly, though, Bischoff told us that the mystery man from before was Scott Norton.

MR. WALLSTREET PROMO- he buried the New Generation, claimed he would join the ranks of top stars like Hogan, Sting, Savage, and Vader, and assured us that down the road, we would know that Michael Wallstreet was "a real player" in WCW. In hindsight, this is hilarious.

WCW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Hulk Hogan(c) (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Big Bubba Rogers- 3/10
Big pops for both guys. Bubba wrestled in a button-down shirt, suspenders, and his suit pants. Did he always do this, or did he just pick a really bad day to lose his gear?
Hogan did some strangely heelish things here, like threatening to punch the referee for telling him not use a closed fist. Another spot saw Hogan use Jimmy Hart’s jacket to blindfold Bubba before punching him while Jimmy Hart distracted the ref. It looked for all the world like a heel manager distracting the ref so his heel charge could cheat.
The match only went about seven minutes. Hogan won with the leg drop. The crowd went nuts.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- GREAT (despite one or two embarrassing verbal mistakes)
The Dungeon of Doom came out to attack Hogan, but Luger came out to help Hogan fight them off (though Hogan seemed to be doing pretty well all by his lonesome). They came face to face and started to yell at each other, but Sting and Savage quickly came out, with each guy calming his best buddy down.
Luger said that the WCW World Heavyweight Title was the ONLY world title, and he has come here to take the title from Hogan. Luger made sure to disparage the WWF (though not by name) in a way that allowed him to work in the “where the big boys come to play” catchphrase. He said he didn’t care if he had to wait until next month, next year or five years from now, but he wanted a title shot. That was an odd line. Hogan said his Hulkamaniacs would support him. He then said that Luger didn’t have to wait for next week if he wanted a title shot… then immediately said he would give Luger a title shot next Monday on Nitro. Wouldn’t that entail Luger waiting a week?
Mean Gene then told us that the match has been confirmed by management and signed off on, saying that he could hardly wait until “next Sunday.” Whoops.
Then, for whatever reason, they DIDN’T sign off. Double whoops. Instead, we went back to the announce desk where Bischoff told us that Michael Wallstreet and Sabu would both be on next week’s show. From some unexplained reason, Mongo was holding a lapdog that was wearing a headband with devil’s horns. I swear to G-d I am not making that up and that was 100% totally sober when I watched it.

Despite the low ratings I’ve given the matches, the show as an overall presentation was great. It was paced well, and there was never a moment that didn’t feel exciting. With both the Hogan-Luger title match and Savage vs. Norton confirmed for next week, I know they definitely would have had me tuning in again in a week.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Bischoff called Liger's Koppu Kick a "Cartwheel Kick" showing that he lacks knowledge of both pro wrestling maneuvers and gymnastics maneuvers.