January 30, 2009
Matt Peddycord

WCW Monday Nitro
October 2, 1995
Denver, CO
Denver Coliseum

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hulk Hogan (7/17/1994)
WCW U.S. Champion: Sting (6/18/1995)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The American Males (9/18/1995)
WCW World Television Champion: Diamond Dallas Page (9/17/1995)

Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and that Emmy-award winning Steve “Mongo” McMichael.

Right after the introductions, Flair pops up behind Bischoff and steals his headset to say that tonight he and Arn Anderson will get it on. WOO!

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage
That’s right, WCW. You TAKE that first-quarter hour against those Raw guys. Remember what Luger said last week – if he loses, he leaves WCW. Strong, strong, SUPER strong tie-up as they take it all the way to the floor. And we decide to take a commercial break. Afterwards, Savage is sitting on the middle rope waving for Luger to come in the ring with him. Luger storms the ring and shoves Savage off a collar and elbow into the corner so he can flex! They trade slaps and brawl down to the floor where they get into a suplex battle. Neither man even leaves the floor as Luger turns it around into a reverse neckbreaker. Back in, Savage blocks a slam with an inside cradle for two. Bischoff announces that Hulk Hogan is on his way to address his Hulkamaniacs. Luger grabs Savage and delivers a press slam, but then ducks low off a whip. Savage blocks a hiptoss into a backslide. They REALLY fight over this one. Once Savage drops to his knees, Luger puts his foot on the second rope to avoid having his shoulders pinned. Luger powers his way back up and takes control of the backslide for two. Double-KO spot ensues. Savage gets to his feet and comes off the top with flying double ax handle, but Luger nails him on the way down. Savage WANTS that flying double sledge, so he dumps Luger out and gives it to him out there to send Lex crashing into the guardrail. Luger shoves Savage off into the ringpost to gain a breather. Back in the ring, Savage sends Luger into ref Randy Anderson. Savage slams Lex and delivers the MACHO ELBOW! But there’s no ref, dummy! Savage goes over to wake up the ref as we see the Giant making his way to the ring. UH OH! With Luger and the ref still down and out, Giant delivers a CHOKESLAM to Savage! He leaves Luger alone though and heads back to the locker room. Weird! Luger sees Savage is down and picks him up dead weight for the TORTURE RACK. That makes the submission academic. (8:00 shown) That was much better than I thought it would be. I liked the “never giving an inch” feel of the match with both guys battling over moves. The crowd is booing Luger like crazy though! ***

Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko
Disco Inferno interrupts Eddie’s entrance by dancing in the aisleway to his own music when its supposed to be Eddie Guerrero. I love that! Once Eddie’s music does play, he walks out and gets that Latin temper boiling. According to Graham and he knows these sorts of things, this is Malenko’s WCW TV debut match. If that’s true and I have complete faith in Graham Cawthon that it is indeed his TV debut, what better way to have Malenko debut than against a guy who he has already had several MOTYC matches in ECW. Before the match gets started, they show a clip of Eddie beating Jushin Liger with a Frog Splash from the Main Event. Our first high spot happens with Guerrero landing on his feet out of a monkey flip. And the crowd shows their approval. They run the ropes a bit ending with Eddie eating a dropkick. We need Mike Tenay for this match. Malenko catches Guerrero charging at him in the corner for a lift into a spinebuster. That sets up a rollup sequence and WHAT! Now we have to cut away because Hogan is in the building?! Jimmy Hart warns Hogan to get back in the limo and leave because the Giant is here! Hogan says that if 10,000 screaming Hulkamaniacs can’t keep him away from the arena, then Jimmy Hart can’t either. He’s going to hunt the Giant down and end all his shenanigans. Chokeslamming lots of people equals SHENANIGANS? Jimmy tells Hogan that his neck isn’t at 100% and he shouldn’t be here. Hogan says that if the Giant takes him out, so be it. He wants to look at that Giant eye to eye. Okay, back to live action and they are switching around in a full nelson. Malenko blocks a monkey flip out of the corner and places Guerrero on the ropes, but gets flipped out to the floor anyway. Guerrero gives Malenko a slam on the concrete and then delivers a HUGE dive out on him! Oh it’s one for the highlight reel. Back in, Eddie hits a Brainbuster to set up the FROG SPLASH, but Malenko brings the knees up. They do a couple standing switches off a waistlock ending with Eddie blocking a rollup for 1-2-3. (5:30) Easily the best match to date on Nitro. And even then, it was ruined by the Hogan interruption. When Eddie starts to leave, Malenko pulls him back in the ring and demands a rematch. Eddie’s down for it. ***¼

Gene Okerlund introduces Hulk Hogan (complete with neck brace!) and Jimmy Hart. Hulk says he was hanging out with a little teeny Hulkamaniac named Jason Pittman who was getting ready for a double-lung transplant. So this kid tells Hogan to man up and put down the Giant. It’s because Jason ran his mouth off that Hogan’s here. Hogan says he’s going to the back to rip the Giant apart. Before Hogan makes his way to the locker room, he stops to high five the fans at ringside until he comes upon an OLD LADY WHO THROWS POWDER AT HOGAN’S FACE! It’s Kevin Sullivan in old lady drag. He beats Jimmy Hart with his/her cane and goes after Hogan. Heenan calls him Norman Bates. That’s why they call you the Brain. With Hogan weakened, now the Giant comes down to get him a piece of the Hulkster. Zodiac joins him to ward off any oncoming help. Giant rips off the neck brace and twists Hogan’s neck just like he did at Fall Brawl. Hogan’s not going anywhere. Sullivan pulls out some clippers and begins to shave off Hogan’s mustache! Apparently his stache was where the power lies and not in the palm of his hands. We should have known. The American Males and the Nasty Boys who were supposed to have a match at some point try to save Hogan, but they all take chokeslams. Let’s go to break.

Stay tuned after Nitro! A martial arts master protects his pupil from the mafia as Bubba Smith stars in My Samurai.

Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson
Flair looks to get his revenge on Arn for Fall Brawl. He’s been talking about kicking tail for weeks and now he’s got his chance. Arn works the arm a little bit, but he’s cornered for some chops and punches to the chin. Arn goes to the eyes and sends him in for the Flair Flip to the apron. Arn charges as Flair pulls the top rope to send him flying to the floor. Flair follows him and whips him into the guardrail. Arn pokes the eyes again and backdrops Flair on the floor. Back in, Flair begs off. And he’s working babyface? They trade blows while Bischoff discusses the baseball playoffs…on a WRESTLING show. AA comes back with a Spinebuster, but can’t capitalize on the quick cover. Eventually he does cover and only gets two. Arn grabs an Ole-like stepover armbar. They trade sleepers ending with Flair shoving Arn off into the corner to set up a back suplex. Flair runs into an elbow out of the corner, but Flair returns the favor and hooks on the FIGURE-FOUR. Too close to the ropes though. Arn rolls out to the floor which gives Flair the opportunity to fly down on him, but he gets nailed on the way down. Flair backdrops out of a piledriver and we’re back in the ring. DDT? No! Flair hooks the top rope to block it. He pounds away on Arn’s face and chops away, but then ducks low off a whip. Arn comes off the second rope and of course he gets chopped coming down. FIGURE-FOUR! With Arn in deep trouble, Pillman runs down and splashes Flair while he’s still got the hold in place. That’ll cost Arn the match by DQ. (8:17) An old school Horsemen attack follows as they leave him laying. It’s not an AWESOME old school Horsemen attack merely because no bones were broken. If they had broken a leg or an arm, I would be flipping out right now. Felt like they were going through the motions to lead up to the finish, but that’s still not a bad thing for these two. **½

Next week: Flair/AA in a cage, Sting takes on Shark, Sabu returns to Nitro to meet Mr. JL (Jerry Lynn), Road Warrior Hawk battles Big Bubba Rogers!

And we out! This was just main event after main event. Best episode of Nitro to date.