April 19, 2009
Matt Peddycord
The Powerdriver Review

WCW Monday Nitro
February 5, 1996
Lakeland, FL
Jenkins Arena

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Randy Savage (1/22/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Konnan (1/29/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Sting & Lex Luger (1/22/1996)
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.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth & Woman) vs. Chris Benoit
Crazy tight tie-up to start. Benoit throws Savage to the floor for a toss into the guardrail. Back inside the ring, Benoit continues with the VIOLENCE~! He has some fun chopping and keeps Savage on his back with a snap suplex. Swandive Headbutt connects as Benoit maintains control of the match. Savage starts his comeback, but takes a backdrop to the floor while Woman has the ref’s attention. HOLD THE PHONE! Benoit follows him out with a suicide dive, but Savage moves and Benoit eats the guardrail legs. Oh my gosh. Benoit’s done. Savage throws him into the ring for the MACHO ELBOW. We look over and see Flair hitting on the women folk. Flair grabs Liz to shield himself from Savage. As Savage backs Flair towards the guardrail, Woman runs up from behind and CHOKES SAVAGE WITH A SCARF! SWERVE~! Ring the bell, ref. This match is over. (8:18) Arn Anderson walks down and takes over for Woman as the Horsemen do a number on Savage. That cues Hogan to clean house with a steel chair. Pretty disappointing as it was too slow compared to what they *could* do. That dive into the guardrail was nasty though. Almost made me ache. Again I say, almost. **½

Gene Okerlund gets some comments of a hysterical and distraught Hulkster. Liz stands right in front of Hogan while Flair comes up behind him and lays Hogan out with a cheap forearm right into his bad eye. WOOOO! Giant and Zodiac head to the ring. Flair holds Hogan for a chairshot across his back from the Giant. He wants another one, but Zodiac pushes him back. And the whole time, Zodiac is thinking about butts. To fix this awkward moment, Savage charges the ring and cleans house with the almighty steel chair. Savage wants to know why Liz didn’t tell Hogan that Flair was behind him. Gene goes to her defense, but nobody’s buying it, Gene.

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! VK Wallstreet battles Sgt. Craig Pittman! Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman will be there! The Giant might show up! Lex Luger and Sting will team up to take on a couple scrubs! And of course, a Randy Savage vs. Chris Benoit rematch! You don’t want to miss that main event! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS AND ALL THAT PLUNDAH, BABY!

Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs. Kevin Sullivan & Hugh Morrus (w/Jimmy Hart)
Morrus laughs off some chops (although that could be the character talking) and press slams Pillman to start. Back in, Sullivan tags and slaps Pillman around. Morrus and AA go at it. Pillman tries to sneak in that knee from the apron on Morrus, but it doesn’t faze him. He choke lifts Pillman until Arn knees him from behind to set up a Spinebuster. Morrus gets stuck on the Horsemen side of town for a while. At one point, he was supposed to nail Pillman out of the corner but doesn’t do so. Morrus tags Sullivan, who comes in like a house of fire on Pillman. He puts him up in the Tree of Woe followed by the Running Knee. Sullivan mounts Pillman and starts biting him as the match breaks down. AA beats Sullivan over to the Nitro set and tries a piledriver, but Arn gets WHACKED with a broom from behind the curtain by the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA? Nah, surely not. Once Sullivan is back in the ring, he’s got a strap with him and the ref calls for the bell. (7:15) Hey, no straps allowed, bookerman. Morrus delivers the NO LAUGHING MATTER to Pillman so Sullivan can whip him without much of a fight. Well, that is until Morrus lets him go. Call me crazy, but they have been setting this match up for weeks and it really did deliver what it set out to do. As I would love to hear Sullivan say in his Bostonian accent, it’s going to be WICKID AWESOME! ***

Ric Flair (w/Woman) vs. Marcus Bagwell
WOOOO! Woman is officially in the Four Horsemen. I know this because now she can do the official hand sign! Only a true Horsemen knows how to make your thumb disappear like that. While Flair and Woman head to the ring, Orndorff shows up behind our esteemed announcers and gives them the verbal wink that he was the one who nailed Arn with a broom earlier. OMG! Flair beats Bagwell down in the corner to start, so he comes back and clotheslines Flair to the floor. Bagwell meets him on the floor with another clothesline. Geez, this is like an Ultimate Warrior match. Back in, Flair suckers Bagwell to come at him in the corner and kicks him in the balls. Bagwell punches back and backdrops Flair for two. Flair avoids a dropkick while Heenan makes sure to put over Flair as much as he possibly can. Figure-Four is reversed into an inside cradle. In a weird spot, Bagwell gets dumped out to the floor. Back inside, Flair hits the Rolling Knee Drop. Bagwell slams him off the top for two. He blocks a suplex and gives Flair a superplex for another nearfall. Bagwell hits knees off a slingshot splash. Flair styles and profiles into the FIGURE-FOUR and gets the submission. (7:01) Flair won’t release the hold and pops the ref in the face for so much as suggesting that he should release the hold after the match is over. It’s not until Savage runs down and chases Flair away that the hold gets broken. And that’s when Bischoff makes the remark, “There’s your 12-time World Heavyweight champion!” What is that supposed to mean? They tried making a star out of Bagwell by booking him like Sting, but there’s no reason Bagwell should be getting that much offense in and going seven minutes with Flair a week after he beat Hogan. The longer this match went, the more it made Flair’s win last week look like a total fluke. **

Coming up after Nitro. Hey, do you remember high school? Do you remember your first car? Do you remember driver’s ed? Take a wild ride with Harvey Korman and Alyssa Milano in Crash Course.

WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger vs. The Road Warriors
You see, Sting has been all about wrestling the Road Warriors since they came back at the Clash. Lex Luger on the other hand, not so much. Sting starts with Animal. Sting gets overpowered, but fights back with a face slam and a flying clothesline for two. Luger and Hawk tag. He beats down Hawk until he tries a piledriver, but YOU CAN’T GIVE HAWK A PILEDRIVER! Hawk stands right back up and drills Lex with a clothesline and a jumping shoulderblock. Sting tags and hits a Stinger Splash on Hawk. He goes for the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Animal says no sir. Off a whip, Luger pulls the top rope down to send Animal flying to the floor. Back in the ring, Luger puts the boots to Animal and slams him for a bunch of elbow drops. And just as I type that, the power goes out in the Jenkins Arena. Whoops. Of course, Bischoff blames the WWF for it. As we come back, Luger is working over Animal’s back and tags Sting. He grounds Animal with a front headlock. “LOD” chants go up. Luger tags back in and powerslams Animal to set up for the TORTURE RACK, but Animal knows it’s coming and catches Lex with a back suplex. Sting and Hawk brawl to the floor while inside the ring, Animal NO-SELLS a suplex. As Animal hits Luger with a powerslam, here comes Jimmy with a metal plate of some sort. He drops it for Luger while Animal grabs him by the throat. Animal gets WHACKED in the back with the metal object, as Luger covers him for 1-2-3. (7:58) Sting is not cool with this, but it’s a win nonetheless. Hawk and Animal demand a match with the winners of the Harlem Heat/Sting & Luger match at Superbrawl VI. Certainly not as good as anything these four did with each other in 1988. **¼

Before we go, Mongo encourages us viewers to rake our faces across a chain-link fence. And with that, we are outta here!