LIVE from Miami, Florida, THIS is WCW! ERIC BISCHOFF, BOBBY HEENAN, MONGO MCMICHAEL, and PEPE welcome us, and tonight, we have Flair vs. Sting for the World Heavyweight Title. This didn’t warrant any hype on Saturday Night? Yeesh folks! Also, Luger vs. Savage, and Hogan vs. Meng, this is a totally loaded program. We can’t even hear from Pepe before Luger’s music hits and takes us to the opener.
LEX LUGER vs. RANDY SAVAGE
Bischoff announces during the entrances that Savage is getting a title shot against the winner of Flair/Sting, which should give away the finish of this one to sharp eyed viewers. Savage brings a chair to the ring with him, and in the tug-of-war with the referee, Luger takes a cheap shot and launches Savage over the top, crashing into the guard rail. Savage eats the ring steps, and when trying to crawl back into the ring, Luger boots him right back to the floor. Savage telegraphs the same spot, but this time drags Luger by the ankles to the floor and beats the piss out of him. Back in, Savage hits the axehandle off the top for a close 2. Luger begs off, which just incites a psychotic attack from Savage. Luger is choked with Savage’s boot. Savage continues his assault, picking up a string of 2 counts. Luger rakes the eyes to get the advantage, and drops a trio of elbows for 2. Savage comes back with a Hot Shot, and heads up top for the Big Elbow – but Luger moves and Savage pounds the canvas. Torture Rack finishes clean as a whistle at 5:10. Luger is 4-0 against Savage in his return to WCW. **
KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ZODIAK, THE GIANT, HUGH MORRUS, JIMMY HART, ONE MAN GANG, CHRIS BENOIT, RIC FLAIR, BRIAN PILLMAN, and ARN ANDERSON drag “MEAN” GENE OKERLUND to the ring against his will, and Bischoff nervously wonders what the hell is going on. Anderson tells Gene that everything the Horsemen do is financially motivated, and has no desire to do battle with the Dungeon of Doom any longer, as there’s no titles on the line, and all they’ll do is kill each other for no gain. Sullivan says he has a lot of respect for Flair and Anderson, but wants something done with Brian Pillman because he has no respect for anyone. Pillman gets in Sullivan’s face, so Sullivan smacks him in the face. Pillman goes to attack, but Anderson holds him back. Sullivan reminds the Horsemen that the Dungeon of Doom has a match against Hogan later and would appreciate any assistance they can offer.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY vs. AMERICAN MALES
This is TPE’s WCW debut, and Bischoff builds them up like they’re the greatest tag-team this side of the Road Warriors. Yikes, is HE ever gonna be disappointed. The Males dump both members of Public Enemy to the floor, so TPE yanks them to the floor and brawl. Back in, Bagwell hits a double crossbody block on both members, and dropkicks them to clear the ring once again. Finally the referee takes control and a regular tag-taem match erupts. Grunge gets monkey flipped by Riggs for 2. Bagwell comes in and backdrops both members, and flattens them with dropkicks. Bagwell tries a roll up but the referee is busy with Riggs, and Grunge gets the pin with a handful of tights 3:28. This was a god awful trainwreck with no flow, and a sign of TPE’s future. Post-match, a couple of tables are set up in a spot that takes way, way too long and Bagwell takes a senton from Rocco through the both of them. -* for all of it.
STING vs. RIC FLAIR (with Jimmy Hart) (for the WCW World Heavyweight Title)
WCW is running through Flair’s potential challengers at a rapid pace, between Savage on Saturday, and Sting tonight. Flair attacks, but Sting just screams in his face much to Flair’s annoyance. Flair tries to dump Sting, but Sting is right back in the ring. Flair takes a press slam, is whipped to the buckle where he flips to the apron and gets clotheslined. A suplex drags Flair back into the ring, and Hart starts screaming “GRAB HIS TIGHTS, IT HELPS!” Flair opts for knife edge chops instead. The two fight to the top rope, and Sting hits a superplex. Big splash goes to finish but Flair blocks with his knees, and we take a commercial break.
We return to Sting missing a blind charge, hitting the ropes hard, and Flair drops his knee across Sting’s face. Flair goes for a pin, and uses the ropes for leverage. Flair is caught in the act, and the ref won’t count. Flair dumps Sting to the floor to buy himself some time to plot. Back in, Flair hits a knife edge and goes for a pin, but Sting kicks out with authority. Flair whips Sting to the buckle, from which Sting explodes with a clothesline and Flair sells it like death. Sleeper is applied middle of the ring, but Flair turns it into a backdrop suplex to escape. Flair goes back to the attack, but Sting isn’t having it. Sting goes for a dropkick, but Flair avoids it and goes for the Figure Four. Sting reverses into a small package for 2. Sting tries a backslide, but that also gets 2. Sting uses the ropes to attempt a slingshot sunset flip, but Flair blocks and tries to drop a fist. Sting moves, Flair hits canvas, and Sting is back on his feet looking pissed. Sting makes provocative hip thrusts at Flair, so Flair heads up where he’s promptly caught and slammed. Flair starts throwing every punch and chop he’s got left in his repertoire, all of it no-sold. He whips Sting to the ropes and chops him, stops to pose like Superman, and when he turns around Sting decks him. LEX LUGER is now on the apron trying to talk sense into Jimmy Hart about god knows what, and in the confusion, Sting gets hit by Luger with the megaphone. Luger gets in Hart’s face about Sting being his friend, meanwhile Flair retains with the Figure Four at 11:07. ***
THE MEGAPOWERS are on the scene to chase off Luger and Flair. Hogan provides Sting a little TLC. “MEAN” GENE OKERLUND follows the scent of Hogan to the ring to get the scoop. Hogan tells on Luger, and begs Sting to see the light where Luger’s concerned. Savage is a lot more blunt: “I TOLD YA FROM DAY ONE YOU COULDN’T TRUST LUGER”. Sting doesn’t believe them 100%, and goes off to confront Luger who will set the score straight. While Sting does that, Hogan starts crying about the fact Savage has a title shot – feeling he’s more deserving than Savage is. Savage: “My name isn’t Nick Bockwinkle – I’m getting the title shot because I deserve it.” Oh snap girlfriend. Hogan keeps crying, and when Savage walks off because he doesn’t want to deal with Hogan’s PMSing, Hogan’s all “wait, we’re friends, what gives man?”
MENG (with Kevin Sullivan) vs. HULK HOGAN
Apparently this deserved top billing over the Sting/Flair title match. Meng attacks a camera man on his way to the ring, which is kind of hilarious because it’s so random. You could lay me 15:1 and I wouldn’t bet against anyone else showing up before this is all said and done. Meng attacks off the bell, and puts Hogan on the mat. Hogan has his face ground into the canvas. Meng pounds on Hogan’s shoulders, and applies a nerve hold. Hogan fights his way out, but a throat jab sends him right back to the mat. Meng chokes Hogan out, and slams him setting up a flying headbutt. The move misses, so Hogan rakes the eyes because he’s such a role model. Meng has no time for that, so he throat punches Hogan with a spike in his hands, and goes for the win. Hogan starts his seizure routine, so Sullivan jumps on the apron with the spike. RANDY SAVAGE runs down, steals the spike, throws it to Hogan who’s MORE than happy to cheat with it, and he wins at 4:40. Listening to Mongo justify Hogan’s cheating as “tit for tat” is a total farce; because you’ll never see Sting resorting to this kind of low-level debauchery, no matter what his opponent is doing. Just saying. 1/2*
Time management wasn’t WCW’s forte this week, because Bischoff wraps things up in about 20 seconds, and we fade to black. Savage and Flair next week – SNAP INTO IT.
I am loving these reviews. They bring back old memories. I can not believe it has been seventeen years. I recall watching this show back then and wondering why Savage was jobbed out to Luger a week before he got his world title shot. The can Sting trust Luger storyline was very interesting and when the NWO came in I figured Luger was going to be The third man. According to Nash it was originally supposed to be Sting, but he did not wanna turn and when Hogan saw how big the NWO storyline was getting he decided to jump onboard. Anyway the Sting vs Flair match and the Luger angle made this a thumbs up show.
I love these recaps. They bring back a ton of nonsensical memories regarding plot and dialogue. Heenan must've been drinking a fifth an hour with those idiots in the booth. At least Shiavone didn't have a pointless small dog. Why did he have that dog? And how did Mongo get to be on commentary? There has to be some interesting story about the job hiring process.
What was old is new again: Flair (CM Punk) defends the title against Sting (Daniel Bryan) in the semi-main, while Hogan (John Cena) and Meng (Kane) get the main event.
Next week: Flair comes out and demands YOUR RESPECT BECAUSE HE'S THE BEST IN THE WORLD, DAMMIT.
Was the Flair/Sting match won by pinfall? Surely it wasn't Sting submitting.
(edited by ekedolphin on 15.1.13 2358) "Y'know, it has been a year since the last [Royal Rumble], I'm very sketchy on this, so bear with me here. If I Brogue Kick that small little head of yours over the top rope, and your body stays in the ring, tell me, fella, does that count as an elimination?" --Sheamus, to Randy Orton, SmackDown 1/4/13
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I agree, may as well just be honest. It's not like it will hurt his character at all and let's face it, if they try to do some storyline angle it will never be picked up when he returns.