February 12, 2009
Matt Peddycord

WCW Monday Nitro
November 13, 1995
Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville Coliseum
(taped on November 6, 1995)
(Yeah, that’s right. It wasn’t always live.)

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: vacant (11/6/1995)
WCW U.S. Champion: Kensuke Sasaki (11/13/1995)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Harlem Heat (10/28/1995)
WCW World Television Champion: Johnny B. Badd (10/29/1995)

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

Hogan cuts the bizarre promo I’ve ever seen him associated with. He’s dressed up like an Emo Zorro. He’s wearing a black cloak, a black mask, black gloves, a crucifix and he’s holding an Excalibur sword while he’s supposedly in a grave yard. Anyways, Hogan says he wants Randy Savage to bring him the head of Meng on a silver platter. And because he doesn’t trust Sting, he wants a match with him next week! WHAT.

Randy Savage vs. Meng (w/Jimmy Hart & Kevin Sullivan)
In all black gear, Savage attacks Meng from behind by coming out through the crowd. Funny how both Savage and Hogan used the same attire for when they became nWo. They go to the floor where Savage posts Meng a couple times. It’s just all Savage until he gets caught on the way down when he tries a flying double sledge. Back to the floor, Meng posts Savage. In the ring, Meng absolutely destroys Savage in the corner. Finally, Meng misses a Flying Headbutt and gets ran into Jimmy Hart’s megaphone. MACHO ELBOW! It’s over. (4:53) SHARK ATTACK! Macho goes down. In comes Luger to try and break Savage’s arm. Commercial break!

Chris Benoit vs. Kensuke Sasaki
Nothing wrong with this. In real time, Sasaki is the US champ after beating Sting over in Tokyo. Sasaki is so fast and power. He snaps off a nice suplex and his signature powerslam for two. More power stuff from Sasaki. Benoit starts his comeback by landing on Sasaki when he tries a back suplex for two. Benoit slips out of a press powerslam into Rolling Germans for their debut on Nitro. The final one is a DRAGON SUPLEX for the 1-2-3. (2:39) This sets up their US title match at World War 3. Short and simple, but hard hitting. Bischoff mentions for the first time in the segment that Benoit is the newest member to complete the Four Horsemen. Why hadn’t we heard of this sooner? When did this get decided? *¾

WCW World Television Champion Johnny B. Badd vs. Eddie Guerrero
Quick start ends with Badd cocking back like he wants to nail Eddie. That’s not much like a babyface. Wristlock exchange leads to leapfrogs and Guerrero taking a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. That gets two. Guerrero returns the favor with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. Eddie trips up Badd for two. Badd tries to trip Eddie, but a timely leap prevents that. Badd takes him over with a snapmare and we’ve come to a stalemate. Badd catches Guerrero charging at him in the corner with an elbow and delivers a slingshot legdrop for 1-2-NO! Eddie climbs up the ropes for a spinning headscissors for two. Badd throws Eddie down off a superplex for a Flying Sunset Flip. Eddie rolls through into a nearfall sequence. Badd avoids a charge and that causes Guerrero to go flying out to the floor so Badd can deliver the somersault plancha! Back in, Badd misses a slingshot splash. Torso rollup screws up, but Eddie still gets two. Lots of nearfalls for Eddie here. Badd fires back on Guerrero as he starts to get MAD. Eddie sells for a few moments and then lunges on Badd to unleash his LATIN TEMPER! It becomes a schoolyard brawl until they finally chill out. Guerrero escapes a headlock with a back suplex and delivers a Hilo. Two minutes left in the ten-minute time limit. Badd reverses a tombstone piledriver and delivers. That gets two. One minute left as Guerrero hits a tornado DDT. Slow covers gets another two. 30 seconds left. They crash and burn off crossbody blocks. 15 seconds! They go back to fisticuffs as the time limit expires. (9:04) And we’re back on WCW time. No worries though. They embrace and all is right with the world. I liked this more on the second viewing. Badd seemed to have a hard time knowing what to do in certain points. **¾

Gene Okerlund has The Giant, Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Hart in the ring. He admonishes Jimmy for what he did at Halloween Havoc. Gene, that was SO two weeks ago. Jimmy considers that a compliment and asks what he’s going to do with all those Hulkster jackets in his closet. That is a fair question. Giant says he’ll be the champion forever come World War 3 while Kevin Sullivan mocks Hogan’s seizure-esque selling on the mat.

Sting vs. Dean Malenko
Seems like such an odd match looking back. Malenko tries to feel out Sting to start with waistlocks and headlocks. Sting NO-SELLS a shoulderblock and delivers a press slam. Sting offers a handshake, but Malenko doesn’t shake hands with people who wear face paint. Malenko dropkicks Sting’s knee and wears that down for quite some time with a legbar. Sting fights back on one good leg, but a dropkick to the knee will put him back on the mat. Malenko gets caught off a float over out of the corner, but shoves Sting off into the corner for a bridging German suplex for 1-2-NO! Malenko whiffs on a dropkick, but avoids the Stinger Splash and hits a missile dropkick. He wants that TEXAS CLOVERLEAF, but Sting does not and counters into an inside cradle for 1-2-3. (5:08) Good to see Sting mixing it up with Malenko. **

After a break, Gene Okerlund grabs Sting for an interview for a response to Hogan’s challenge. Sting says he has nothing against Hogan, but Hulk has seemed to have forgotten that he’s a big dog in WCW. He’s had guys challenge him for years and he’s still standing, so what makes Hogan think this time will be any different. As a huge Sting fan, I love this interview. No word on what was whispered to him by Luger last week. And we out!