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Episode 30: Slamboree '96
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Woooooo shall not pass! It's Slamboree 1996, and WCW's stalwarts, along with some of its rising stars, seek to become the Lord of the Ring...as WCW, for some reason, decides to abandon the Hall of Fame concept of prior Slamborees to do a Battlebowl show. Can Ric Flair and Randy Savage get along? Which Steiner Brother will come out on top when they face off? What secret purpose does Luger Selling serve? And who will become the Lord of the Ring? For all this, plus our picks for the WCW cast of "The Lord of the Rings," let's go to the One Ring!
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/letsgo2thering , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Slamboree 96
00:00:07
Speaker
I'm trying to make the boober real.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days and not so good old days of World Championship Wrestling Series by Series. I'm your host, Bob Moore, and I'm joined by Das Wunderhost, Alec Wright. Guten Tag. How's it going tonight, Al? Good. How's it going with you? Doing all right. You knew that was going to be your nickname this time. It had to come up at some point, yeah. Yeah.
Slamboree 96 Overview: Attendance and Venue
00:01:07
Speaker
Tonight we're taking a look at Slamboree 96. What goes up must come down. Hard. So is it about hotter balloon crashes? Probably. Probably. I could see that. WCW explores the wonderful fields of airline safety.
00:01:26
Speaker
Or, you know, could be. It could be caper tossing. It could be caper tossing. Yeah. That would that would actually potentially be a more interesting show, I think, than we're about to cover. At points, yeah. At points, for sure.
00:01:39
Speaker
Slimbury 1996 was held on May 19, 1996 at the Riverside Centroplex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in front of 7,791 fans with 6,308 paid and it earned 110,000 pay-per-view buys.
00:01:59
Speaker
That's the lowest amount of pay-per-view buys for a WCW show in 1996, though it is still within striking distance of most. Except for Starrcade 96's 240,000, all the other WCW pay-per-views in 96 got between 110,000 and 175,000 pay-per-view buys. It's a pretty good area to be in, at least. Not too bad.
00:02:22
Speaker
There's not a super blowout really this year, but there's no real downgrades either. By the way, did you look and see what the arena is currently called? Yes, yes, I did. The Raising Cane's River Center. Yes. It's apparently, I looked it up because I was curious that I saw the name. It's apparently a regional fast food chain in Louisiana. Fascinating, really? They bought the naming rights, yeah. Okay. Would not have guessed that.
00:02:49
Speaker
Now, the pay-per-view buys are about $20,000 less than last year, which I'm guessing means that about 20,000 people had watched a Battle Bowl show before. Yeah. Tell us when that shows where they shouldn't promote it. Yeah, yeah, probably. Just like, hey, watch Sambury, you know, your note will happen. In-person attendance is similar to last year's, though this year isn't recorded as a sellout like last year
Pre-Show Matches and Storylines
00:03:12
Speaker
was. It is worth noting, though, that paid attendance is about $1,500 higher. Well, that's good.
00:03:18
Speaker
Also, the Riverside Centralplex can hold between 8,900 and 10,400 people, depending on the configuration, so it seems likely that they got reasonably close to filling it up this year. Yeah, they don't have a really elaborate stage or anything, so they just have to have the ring in the middle and obviously the backstage area. Yeah. Before Slamboree started up, there was a single match shown on WCW's main event TV show, The American Males,
00:03:47
Speaker
Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Scottie Riggs beat Dungeon of Doom members The Shark and Max with Jimmy Hart. And just to be clear, because this is the 90s, it's Max with two Xs. Yes, I was about to clarify. Yes, Max with two Xs. That's actually Max Mussel, who was booked previously as DDP's bodyguard slash cheating aide in 1995. I will honestly state I had no idea Max Mussel ever joined the Dungeon of Doom.
00:04:13
Speaker
I only know from OSW did a really thorough list and they covered that tail and he joined and nothing really came of it. Yeah, we're clearly in the period when they just kind of throw any heal that they want into the group rather than trying to keep with the theme. Oh, yeah.
00:04:27
Speaker
In any case, the match ended when Max accidentally closed-lined Shark while Shark was trying to power slam Riggs, so Riggs fell on Shark and pinned him. Shark attacked Max afterwards and got chokeslammed by the Giant, so this is probably where we start Shark's return to being John Tenta and his feud with the dungeon that we're gonna see on the next few shows in 96.
Battle Bowl Format Explained
00:04:46
Speaker
Correct. So this is a Battle Bull show. We've seen Battle Bulls before at Starrcades 91 and 92,
00:04:56
Speaker
There's two parts. First, in the lethal lottery, wrestlers are randomly assigned tag team partners, and then the resulting tag teams are randomly matched up against each other to fight through one or more rounds of eliminations. I'm not sure they can hear your air quotes there.
00:05:16
Speaker
The remaining teams, depending on the year or anything from 8 to 20 competitors, end up in the final Battle Bowl Battle Royale, which has wildly varying rules, but one thing is universal. There are no more teams, and the last competitor remaining wins.
Key WCW Storylines at Play
00:05:32
Speaker
Will this show be more of a Starrcade 1991 Battle Bowl, or more of a Starrcade 1992 Battle Bowl? To find out, let's go to the Lord of the Ring.
00:05:44
Speaker
Now, Al, since there's, like, 11 billion matches on this show, and I'm sure a lot of intertwining storylines going through it, how about we take a bit here to go over the storylines heading into the show? Absolutely. Earlier in the year, there was a match between Harlem Heat and the Road Warriors for the right to challenge the Attack Room champions, those being Lex, Luca, and Sting. Awesome. Also, shortly before this show, we began the super awkward Kevin Sullivan and Chris Benoit feud. Just a bit, yeah. Yeah.
00:06:13
Speaker
So that's his unfortunate happenstance that they end up on the same team together. Speaking of which, when we last left him Randy Savage was super mad at Ric Flair for attacking his dad. He has even more reasons to be mad at him and also super awkward storylines he has running here.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah. The gist is that real life divorce couple, Randy Savage and Mrs. Smith, I guess it made up and been friends after, cause they divorced a couple of years before this storyline started. So it wasn't like a super fresh thing, but definitely too fresh to really use in the wrestling storyline. Yeah.
00:06:47
Speaker
So they put in the story that she was wooed by flair and flair is quote-unquote spending savages money By way of her Yeah, I really I would imagine they did but I really hope that they got everybody's okay before introducing that I mean, I would imagine Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth could say no. Oh, yeah They're both prominent enough that I don't imagine that this would get by without their approval but own still that's
00:07:16
Speaker
It's really probably a storyline that shouldn't have happened. On a less awkward subject, DDP is back in this storyline after losing a loserly WCW match back in March. However, this really convoluted and silly explanation for how he's back basically involves the claws of the contract not actually being honored properly, and he hits a mysterious benefactor, which allows him to earn his way back in.
00:07:44
Speaker
He really should have come back as Charlie Brown from out of town. That would have been great. I could have gotten behind some of those matches. Yes, yeah. Last worth noting is that there are two people that were announced for Battle Ball but were placed fairly last minute in the buildup.
00:08:03
Speaker
The first was the Belfast Bruiser, who was, quote unquote, coincidentally, put on a team with his arch-arrival, Stephen Riegel. He's taken out of the match due to the minor signs of the injury. So they very nicely replaced him with one of Riegel's tag team partners.
00:08:21
Speaker
who, by my saying, was not involved, was not involved in Battle Ball at all, so. Okay. The other was hard work, Bobby Walker. Aw. He was scheduled to be a barbarians partner, but in Cavefabe, he was attacked during a match by Lex Luger, so they say he was injured, and so D.P.'s benefactor found a way to stick him in there. Oh, okay. Also, just for a fun and historical note, a week before this show, D.P. wrestled his first match back officially, which was on WCW Worldwide, a show that is not on the network still,
00:08:51
Speaker
So I had to go through YouTube and find people uploading matches here and there. His opponent was a young pre-heroin Billy Kidman. Okay. And just to be clear, Billy Kidman's original gimmick when he was with the flock is that he's clearly doing heroin. Yes. He's constantly scratching himself. Just to clear that I'm not saying he actually did heroin. We are not suggesting that Billy Kidman was actually doing that yet. Just to make sure.
00:09:14
Speaker
You don't have a legal department here, but I should make that clear. Right. Yeah, the closest I have to a legal department is a collection of Phoenix Wright games. So let's not get us in trouble here. Absolutely not. Here's a lovely person.
00:09:28
Speaker
Oh wait, one other thing to note, it's kind of funny. So the whole gimmick here is that you have to win what, three matches, two tag team match, and then the battle ball itself take a title shot. Right. Cause title shots are a big deal. Not everyone gets title shots. That in mind, I should note people who've gotten title shots before this show happens. Okay. This would be between Nitro and worldwide where a bunch of title matches randomly take place.
00:09:52
Speaker
We have three people. We have Jim Duggan, who for some reason is also going through Battle Bowl to get towel shot, which he already had. Well, I mean, I guess it didn't go his way. So obviously not. Yeah. Lex Luger, who had a tile match the week before the show. Yep. We also have the
Opening Matches and Commentary Highlights
00:10:08
Speaker
shark. They all got towel shots on random B and C shows before this. Yeah. And two of them are now going back into Battle Bowl to get another towel shot.
00:10:20
Speaker
I mean, well, you know, like I said, if it doesn't go your way, then go ahead and jump back in. Yeah. It just feels like it undermines the concept. A little bit. I need to do all this work to get towel shot. Or just wait till they roundly pick me backstage. Yeah. I guess you can look at it as like, you know, you can either wait for the luck of the draw or you can guarantee that you're getting a title shot by doing this. Right. You know, because it might be a year before you get another one or something like that if they go by randomness.
00:10:46
Speaker
And if you win, there's certainly no way that they take that match away from you. Oh yeah, definitely. No possibility of that. Right, that makes sense. Tonight, the Battle Bowl. Sixteen teams of two battle against each other, pitting friend against friend, aligning friend and foe. Ending with a battle royal to determine the lord of the ring. And three belts are on the line.
00:11:13
Speaker
Cruiserweight and U.S. Heavyweight. And for the WCW World Heavyweight title, the champion giant is challenged by Sting. Still stunned by the chokeslamming of his brand and partner, Lex Luger. Tonight, live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it's Slamboree 96.
00:11:36
Speaker
It's just me or when they start talking about Luger's choke slam, do you feel like you hear the Wilhelm scream in the background? Yeah, there's a weird dissonant to the audio there. I think it's because we're getting the audio directly from this and they're, they're looping in other audio, which is not quite the same level. Yeah. I think it's them like fading in the crowd noise during that clip. Yeah. I guess basically when they said next time we see Sting, they'll be standing back there shocked and stunned, like staring at a wall. Okay, but that happened a week ago.
00:12:07
Speaker
We open with a video package that covers the Battle Bowl concept, as well as the singles title matches that we're gonna have tonight. In a bit of good news, we've hit the WCW Cruiserweight title era. Thank goodness. Only the Sting versus the Giant match really gets any kind of buildup here, though we do get an epic Sting jacket during the video package. I can only describe it as Dark Rainbow Peacock. That's accurate, yeah.
00:12:34
Speaker
I guess, uh, would you say that Sting in this bit is, uh, is getting this title match because he won the, uh, 1991 battle bowl? Yeah, that's, that's how it works. He finally is getting that reward. Yeah, absolutely. He had a, what was a one year delay in getting his ring and this would be a, what, five year delay and getting the title match. Well, you get the ring in four years later, you get title match. Yeah. Yeah. Which I guess means on next year's show, it'll be what the great mood of challenging for the title. Yeah. Look forward to that.
00:13:07
Speaker
Perhaps notably, we're fast approaching the NWO era, and in the background during this whole thing, we've got black and white footage of wrestlers facing off in a bit of ring action. There's a bit of a close-in, rapid cuts feel to it that feels very like the style that they're going to end up using for NWO promos, so I kind of wonder if this might have been them starting to work that out. That makes much sense to anything else, yeah.
00:13:31
Speaker
That video package done, Tony Schiavone welcomes us to the show alongside co-host Bobby the Brain Hienan and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. Dusty has an awesome red leather jacket. Very cool. I feel like there's a later show with Dustin Rhodes where we see him wearing pants that seem to match that jacket as well. I feel like it, yeah, yeah. Something like red leather chaps he wears, yeah.
00:13:58
Speaker
Tony builds up the Battle Bowl concept. This year, it's for the title of Lord of the Ring, and a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, currently held by the Giant. Tony notes that hated foes Ric Flair and Randy Savage have drawn each other as partners tonight, and asks how they're gonna handle that. Hienan says there's no way they're gonna get along, and even now they've got police separating them in the back.
00:14:26
Speaker
Tony builds up some of the other totally random drawings. The Steiner brothers will have to face each other tonight, as will the Road Warriors. Tony turns to Dusty and mentions giant chokeslamming Sting's best pal Luger through a table. Dusty says Sting has to get focused, or he'll find himself chokeslammed too, as Henan wonderfully mimes a chokeslam in the background. He's gold. Yes, absolutely.
00:14:53
Speaker
We hear Hawks, what a rush, as the Road Warriors theme starts up, and Tony throws to our first match. So our first match is the first match of the Lethal Lottery, Road Warrior Animal, and Booker T versus Road Warrior Hawk, and the total package, Lex Luger. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick. And wow, the Road Warriors ended up on opposing teams in the first round. Bad luck on their part.
00:15:22
Speaker
The Road Warriors theme this year sounds very Mega Man to me. Hmm, yeah, I can carry that. It's funny that they didn't have Booker come out first, so they could just have Animal and then Hawk come out in sequence and not have to switch music between them though. I mean, if there's a way to do things awkwardly, they're gonna do it here. Yeah, absolutely. That's like rule. I think it's like on a sign backstage at WCW tapings. Yes, yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
Luger, of course, now has his tremendously catchy 1996 theme, and some very nice pyro during his entrance. Heaton notes that Luger's conditioning saved him after that chokeslam by the giant, but then implies he knows something about Luger, but refuses to tell the others.
00:16:04
Speaker
Hawk immediately goes after Booker and ends up lining up with Animal, who is staring Luger down. Tony points out the Road Warriors have just instinctively lined up like they're teamed up and that they don't like Booker or Luger. I believe during his earlier, more heelish phase during this year, Luger had hit one of them with like a roll of silver dollars or something like that.
00:16:25
Speaker
Um, that already him into this, um, he's like his Lex flexer. I thought, yeah, something like that. I forget. Anyway, he was, he definitely had some very nasty confrontations with the road warriors earlier in the year to explain that. Hawk gets in Booker's face and animal cools everything down. So the match can start animal and Luger start us off and Luger sells his own strikes. That's what he's here for. Booker yells at animal to fight better.
00:16:55
Speaker
Luger hits a power slam, but Animal fires back with shoulder blocks, earning a loud Luger sell for that one. His own power slam and a flying shoulder block, then no-sells a Luger suplex as Luger flexes. Dropkick by Animal and he tags Booker, though the two get in a bit of a shoving match. Booker works Luger's arm, but Luger levels him with the clothesline.
00:17:18
Speaker
Dusty is convinced that Luger is still a snake in the grass, but Hienan says Luger used to be an intelligent businessman, but now that he's hanging with Sting, Hienan thinks he's not that bright. Booker dodges a Luger elbow drop, spin Arunis up, and hits a jumping sidekick for two, and later a jumping scissors kick for one as Hawk breaks. Luger gets in Hawk's face, upset about the early save.
00:17:43
Speaker
They shove each other, and everyone's into brawl. Hawk and Animal throw Booker and Luger out, and Animal chases Luger away while Hawk batters Booker. Nick Patrick declares it a double countout, eliminating both teams. The Road Warriors celebrate anyway. Booker claims his team won, but, quote, they cheated. He's aware Animal was his partner, right? Not Luger?
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah. Well, he's kind of in the ref. He thinks the ref cheated, too. Oh, okay. I mean, it is Nick Patrick, so. Right. The crowd chants for the LOD, and Booker swears revenge. The commentators are disappointed that the Road Warriors didn't face each other. Thoughts on this one? It's a decent match, but it really, given everyone in it, should be a lot better.
00:18:36
Speaker
The gimmick here really handicaps the match for me because basically what you get is you get a couple of singles matches put together. There's never truly a full tag match because as you mentioned, Hawk and Animal never lock up at all. Right. But it never quite comes together.
00:18:55
Speaker
I know it's not super bad as in other matches, but there's a bit of stalling here, especially early on. So it's tricky because there's really good moments, like Booker T doing his spin at Rooney to get up and kick. Yes. He is so smooth on that. It is amazing, yeah. Yeah. So it's a mix of stalling and waiting for someone to stop stalling and move and do something else, and then these really big bursts of energy. I think it can work, but this pacing is a little off for me. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
Obviously, the big problem is just the finish. The counter finish doesn't do anyone any justice. And as you mentioned, again, there's no payoff to the whole road warriors that are on this side. Well, they do because they just don't do anything. Right.
Mid-Event Matches and Storyline Developments
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I would I would characterize this as a pretty fun start to a tag match. Yeah. Luger and Animal gave us some nice power wrestling and I like their power slam face off. Yeah.
00:19:44
Speaker
Booker got to show off his kicks, which are awesome. And Luger, of course, dedicated some wonderful bellowing selling tonight. Oh, yeah. He is spectacularly loud on this one. Yeah, there's parts where you're on the hard camera and you still hear him. Oh, yeah. I mean, like super loud. Yeah. Luger's selling is as loud as the stinger call. That's true. Makes sense. They're buddies. Absolutely.
00:20:06
Speaker
The trouble is, it just kind of stops, and more importantly, stops before showing us the most interesting thing that it could have, which would be a fight between the Road Warriors, as you pointed out. I don't actually mind the way the ending happened myself, but I just really wanted them to at least have a couple exchanges first between them. You don't book the Road Warriors might fight, and then not do it.
00:20:30
Speaker
So despite some pretty good action, this really falls flat without having that big moment in it. I think I get to do a thing that's a pretty common issue going shows in this era is you have older established stars that are used to working matches, certain mid 80s, early 90s wrestling style.
00:20:47
Speaker
and booking style, but we're in a newer era at this point. Yeah. And there's a bit of disconnect there. The whole let's all double count out. That's all fight outside thing is a very eighties thing to do. And I'm sure there's a hundred reward matches that in that way. It feels out of place a little bit.
00:21:03
Speaker
Not a terrible finish, it's just disappointing. Yeah, I think you and I had both said, like, what they really could have done was go ahead and have Hawk and Animal fight, and then, like, Booker tries a cheap shot on who is at Hawk that's not on his team. Yes. And Animal gets upset about that, and you can make that lead to the total breakdown.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, sure. There just doesn't feel like there's a strong enough reason for it to totally break down. Luger just gets oddly upset about Hawke saving him from a pinfall. I gather that the idea is like Hawke broke it at one, so Luger's like, I could have broken out on my own. But it's just not strong enough to be like, wow, the match should totally break down. But they just didn't. I don't know. Maybe the Road Warriors didn't want to fight. But yeah, it's it's weird.
00:21:46
Speaker
Or you could have done something where it's like a personal sort of insult. Like you had like Booker set up Hawk, for instance, as part of the doomsday device and try to get animal to, to do the sign. And then he's like, I'm not doing that to my buddy. Yeah, exactly. And that causes, but yes, if you're not going to have the payoff, you have to have some reason why there's a stoppage. Right. It just feels like they just kind of got where they wanted to go and didn't. Yes. Think about how basically. Yeah.
00:22:14
Speaker
Weirdly, after all of this, there's no appearance on the next show, which is the Great American Bash from either Harlem Heat or The Road Warriors. Oh, weird. Now, the stuff will be in Glue Group, but we'll get to that later. We go right to our second match.
00:22:30
Speaker
So for the second match at the Lethal Lottery, it is the public enemy. That's Flyboy Rocko Rock and Johnny Grunge versus the Taskmaster, Kevin Sullivan, who is accompanied by Jimmy Hart and teamed with Chris Benoit of the Four Horsemen. The referee for this match is Randy Eller. Wow, the public enemy ended up teamed up. They lucked out. Yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
Meanwhile, Kevin Sullivan and Chris Benoit are teamed up well in an absolute blood feud. That's crappy luck right there. The public enemy come out waving their hands in the air, totally out of sync. Now are they waving like they just don't care? Well, clearly. Okay, there you go. There you go. The crowd does a much better job of waving their hands in an actual rhythm.
00:23:19
Speaker
Kevin Sullivan has one of the greatest ring intros ever, as he's announced from The Iron Gates of Fate. Holy crap, that's awesome. Sullivan glances over his shoulder at Benoit, far behind, clearly not trusting him. Sadly, Benoit comes out with generic rock instead of the awesome horseman theme. That is weird, because he's into horsemen. Yeah, I guess like maybe Arne gets it more often. It's kind of like partially Arne's theme. I don't know.
00:23:49
Speaker
Wasn't there a show over here where you hear it? It was Robert Parker's faction theme, I think earlier. Yeah. Benoit is wearing his 4-H type. Yes, yes. So there is not to. Oddly, Sullivan and Benoit actually high five. I'm not sure if that's Sullivan playing like he's getting Benoit off guard or if both just kind of went on autopilot doing a standard tag match intro. Could be either one. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker
Dusty looks around for the public enemy's plunder, but Hienan thinks that he said plunger. No, it's W.F. that had the wrestling plumber, not W.C.W. Yeah. Benoit and Rock start, and Rock rakes the eyes and hits a head scissors and a Hurricane Rana. Hienan asks Dusty what he'd do if he had to team up with his most hated rival. Dusty notes his most hated rival would be Hienan. Of course. And Dusty would beat him up and go home. Tony approves.
00:24:45
Speaker
Rock loses his balance momentarily on a stomp. Dusty says the stomp was just that hard. Good cover. Yeah, it's fine. Benoit counters another Hurricane Rana into a powerbomb. Then Mox Rock's dancing lands ground punches and shouts, never mess with the horsemen. Benoit's showing personality? What? Yeah, yeah. This is a crazy night overall. Hienan says that his strategy would have been to let Dusty do all the work. Yeah, it's all that dick.
00:25:14
Speaker
Tag to Sullivan, but Grunge runs in quickly too, and Sullivan and Benoit dump the enemy out. Everyone brawls outside, and Sullivan hurls a chair at Rock as Dusty is ecstatic about Plunder. If every hardcore match had Dusty bellowing about Plunder, I would probably like them a lot more. That would definitely give it at least another half-star, yeah.
00:25:36
Speaker
We view the match in two tiny split screens, so it becomes pretty much impossible to follow for a bit. There's one part, I think when they first go split screen, where they're looking at, I think it's Brock and Sullivan, and the other one is pointed at them from far away. So they're actually on both screens. It's just the same thing. Yeah, it totally denies the purpose of a split screen there. It's pretty funny. It's like one from like the far right angle and one straight ahead of them. Yeah.
00:26:02
Speaker
Rock gets Sullivan on a table outside and goes in to try a dive, but Benoit clotheslines him. Rock suplexes Benoit to the floor, and Sullivan hurls the chair at Grunge, and into the front row of the crowd. It's been a while since we had dangerous metal objects hurtling into the audience. Too long? Rock puts Benoit on the table, punches Sullivan, and drapes him over Benoit. Sullivan fakes unconsciousness, and holds Benoit down.
00:26:31
Speaker
Rock vaults over the ropes into Grunge, and Sullivan dodges aside as the public enemy land on Benoit and send him through the table. Sullivan hides a grin and claims his knee is hurt. Rock pins Benoit, and Grunge needlessly holds Benoit's leg for the three count and the win. Yeah, that last bit's a little strange. Yeah, I don't get it. Like, Benoit is not even moving. I don't know why Grunge is bothering trying to cheat by holding the leg down. He's very thorough, I thought. Yeah, I guess so.
00:27:00
Speaker
Sullivan acts like he's trying to get back to the ring to help while Hart holds him back and Forces him to leave that got me cracking up. Yeah
00:27:12
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? This one has similar problems as far as the match layout for me. The opening part, where Turaka Rock and Benoit feels very fluid for the most part, other than the stomp being a little off. I meant to look it up. They must have some interaction in East W during Benoit's brief time there, because they don't feel like it's the first time they've fought each other. No, absolutely. It feels like they've got some experience with each other. Exactly. So that part felt really fluid to me.
00:27:40
Speaker
And if they kept the match going like that, I've been really liking it. But then again, it's a hard core element where I guess there's no DQ in these matches. Apparently, all of a sudden there is. Yeah. Yeah. Countout is still a thing, but there's no DQ. Because you go from this pretty fluid match where it's been actually a little personality and viciousness, and then it's fighting outside on the floor with some really, sometimes really painful looking chair shots. Yes. Oh man. Before rock a rock and tiny grunge.
00:28:07
Speaker
because they're not using folding chairs. They're using like regular chairs. Yes. Yeah. I neglected to mention that. Yeah. It's a full normal chair, not a folding variety. Yeah. So sometimes it's like the metal legs hitting one in the back, which I'm sure doesn't feel great. No. But other times it's like turned where the front of the seat is coming down to them. Yes. And that does not look pleasant.
00:28:30
Speaker
As far as the finish goes, I feel like he's doing a good job with it. It sets up the whole Sullivan can't be trusted thing and he's using his duration against him. So I didn't really have a problem with that one. Again, really, really short. Yes. But this used the Benoit Sullivan storyline quite well with a subtle animosity between them and a nice tease of them maybe, just maybe being able to work together before Sullivan finds just the right moment to betray Benoit.
00:28:58
Speaker
The match is just kind of set dressing for the angle, I would say. Rock has a few good moves, though, and Benoit does show more personality than normal. And Sullivan apparently delights in hurling chairs at everyone in the vicinity. Grunge is there, I guess. He doesn't really get to do much. That's true, yeah.
00:29:18
Speaker
Sullivan and Benoit made that ending work pretty well for me. And Sullivan's little grin before he starts acting like he's hurt is perfect. He clearly grins and then visibly hides it. It's like pitch perfect acting there. So it's not much of a match, but it is a fun showing all the same. Obviously, given what happened, the taskmaster of Benoit's throw-on continued leading into a last-man standing match at the Great American Bash.
00:29:50
Speaker
Our third match is again part of the Lethal Lottery and it is Sergeant Craig Pitbull Pittman with Teddy Long and Scott Steiner versus The Booty Man with The Booty Babe Kimberly and Rick Steiner. Referee for this one is Randy Anderson.
00:30:11
Speaker
Wow, the Steiners have to face off against each other, too. What are the odds? It's amazing how random this thing happens to be with 32 people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Again, WCW doesn't have Scott and Rick come out in sequence, so they can't just leave Steiner's music running. Hienan claims that the Steiners constantly fought growing up over the last scrap of food, including a hot dog that their mom cooked with a lighter, which Dusty thinks means barbecue.
00:30:40
Speaker
He also says that Rick Steiner had his mustache since he was a year and a half old. I almost believe that, actually. I almost believe that, yes. Tony tells us that these are four men the fans like and respect. One of them is named the Booty Man, so at the very least respect seems doubtful. Yeah, that's... it's at last seen in general, so yeah. Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
Pitman and Booty start. Pitman gets a hammer lock, but Booty rolls him into a pin, but Pitman presumably makes the ropes. They don't really catch it on camera. Pitman hits an unusual jumping headbutt to the gut. Tag to Scott, and Hienan screams for a tag to Rick. He really wants to see the Steiners fight. But Booty disappoints us all by continuing to fight.
00:31:29
Speaker
Scott, double underhook powerbomb, and he tags Pittman in to get the two. But Booty reverses an arm ringer and tags Rick. Rick and Pittman bark at each other. I love that. Might as well. And Pittman makes crazy eyes. Rick hits a power slam, but Pittman hits a belly to back suplex. Heenan jokes that didn't hurt Rick since he landed on his head.
00:31:54
Speaker
Rick hits a monstrous Steiner line, but Pitman crawls over to Scott. Scott hesitates, looking uncertainly at Rick, but he lets Pitman tag him to huge cheers. Hienan encourages sibling rivalry by reminding Scott of all the times he had to use Rick's hand-me-downs.
00:32:17
Speaker
Scott gets a fireman's carry, but Rick counters with a headlock takeover for a few one counts. They trade waste locks, and Scott hits a nasty side suplex, but eats a Steiner line. Scott looks hurt, so Rick pauses to check on him, and Scott rolls him up for one. Scott lands hard forearms, and Dusty says it's getting personal. Scott full Nelson, but Rick slips around and hits a dragon suplex.
00:32:42
Speaker
Rick goes up top, but Scott charges, and hits a side suplex off the top rope. Rick tags out to Booty, who almost immediately charges into the ring post. Scott and Pitman work Booty's arm, and Pitman slaps on the code red arm bar. Booty scoots over to Rick, who tags him over the middle rope. Hienan protests, and based on some of the earlier Starkades, I'm pretty sure that Hienan is right that it has to be over the top rope. Yes.
00:33:10
Speaker
However, Anderson counts it and forces the unaware Pitman to break the hold, and Rick hits a bridging back suplex right in front of Scott. Scott stands there, indecisive, and decides too late to get in, so Anderson counts three, and Rick gets the win.
00:33:28
Speaker
Rick and Booty celebrate their win, and Kimberly says that she likes their teamwork. Heenan claims the M on the Steiner's University of Michigan letter jackets stands for moron, or misfit. Thoughts on this one?
00:33:43
Speaker
I thought it was a nice one overall, I thought, even if it is kind of short, like most of these, these battle matches are. But then he started a match. It's very hard hitting that you have me deliver in that regard. Oh yeah. And the technical skill you see with their throws and everything is really nice.
00:33:59
Speaker
Pitman, for his part, I think stands out pretty well with them. Yes. I don't know his full history, but he definitely he seems comfortable with their style. Yeah, I felt like since you can't have Rick teamed up with Scott, obviously, Pitman was a really, really solid choice. Yeah. He has a very similar style himself, not as hard edged, but the same kind of like mix of amateur wrestling and some throws and everything. Yeah. Obviously, the odd man out here in this booty man whose style isn't really mesh with anybody's.
00:34:29
Speaker
It doesn't feel like he's terrible in this. It's just, everyone is doing these throws and locks and he does knees and, you know, runs in the ring post. Yes. He doesn't like botch anything. It's just, he doesn't seem to fit the rest of the match. It's a classic styles where it's, it's not like a lucha wrestler and a power wrestler where you get the interesting dynamic. Right. It's just, it just doesn't fit in. Right. Exactly.
00:34:53
Speaker
The finish is well done, and like you said, you see Scott see a sort of reticence to break up the move with Evolve attacking his brother. But it's a little less dramatic for me because Pittman's attempt to escape a suplex pin is to scoot backwards towards the ropes. True, yes. Rather than trying to turn his shoulder at all. Yeah, true.
00:35:15
Speaker
I also wonder if anyone, assuming we're not the only one that watches these shows, you know, in 2021, you know, 25 years after they happen, how many people will get the reference with Craig Pittman's finisher being called the Code Red? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of topical, I guess, for then, but it's kind of forgotten.
00:35:32
Speaker
Yes, if you don't know, it's from the movie Fugue and Men, in which they order whole movies about whether or not they ordered a code red, which is where they sort of violently hate you to say that. I guess so, yeah. The recruit, which ends in his death, arguably accidental, arguably intentional. So the whole crux of the finale is that the lawyers, Dom Crews, asked Jack Nicholson to admit that he ordered a code red. Yes.
00:36:00
Speaker
And now you know the truth and hopefully you can handle it. Yes. I thought this one was lots of fun. The focus of the match was building to the confrontation between the Steiners and unlike the first match, they actually gave us that fight, thrilling the crowd.
00:36:18
Speaker
The Steiners did not do a long fight, but it was a good one with some excellent throws and slams, hard hits, and some really good character work playing up their brotherhood, especially that bit where Scott suckers break in by acting hurt. That's definitely a little brother move. That is absolutely... You're familiar with that. A little bit. So, minus the Bootyman, this was everything the first match should have been. Yeah, but I agree with that, yeah.
00:36:45
Speaker
If you had done exactly the same idea with the Road Warriors ending up facing off, don't make it conclusive. But, you know, have them face off for a bit in the middle and then find another way to end the match. I would have liked that first one a lot more. Yeah. And what's interesting is, because obviously a couple of years after this, we had the actual starter brother split when they both become single stars. So it's good. Interesting to see a little foreshadowing there. Absolutely.
00:37:12
Speaker
Following this, they would keep a feud going between the Standard Brothers and Fire and Ice, who we'll see later in the show. Okay. They have a match in the next Nitro, which, much like the first match in this show, ends in a double counter because they're fighting in the outside. That's actually just set up for a PPV match at the Great American Bash between the two teams. Okay. So these are just usable to have that on free TV to build up PPV matches. Exactly. Rather than the other way around.
00:37:38
Speaker
Man, that's a match of four big belukas, isn't it? Oh yeah. Geez. Our fourth match is again in the Lethal Lottery, and it is the Blue Bloods, Lord Stephen Regal and Squire Dave Taylor with Jeeves, versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan and V.K. Wall Street. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick.
00:38:03
Speaker
Wow, the blue bloods just happened to draw each other as partners. But sworn enemies dug in in Wall Street drew each other? What good slash bad luck? Mm-hmm, yeah. Regal verbally abuses Jeeves, who Dusty calls Chives. Yes, he cannot get that, ever. He goes great in potatoes. Oh, man, that's awesome.
00:38:25
Speaker
I'm rather torn on Wall Street's suit that he wears out for his entrance. Kind of a neat design that looks almost like a navy dress uniform with the sort of the button pattern that it has. But then it has this big old dollar sign on one lapel that looks amazingly cheesy.
00:38:40
Speaker
I don't know the exact timeline. It was a few years before this, he was a boat captain. So what if he retrofitted a jacket? The Captain Mike Rotunda gimmick present? Yeah. Because he was that and then he left WF for a while and became IRS, which is basically what this gimmick is, essentially. It's IRS slash million dollar man, kind of. Yeah.
00:39:00
Speaker
He did a fusion dance and became the tag team together. Yeah. Yeah. It's possible he just used a jacket that he had and like sewed that on there. Yeah. For me, I got a real talking head vibe, but it clearly doesn't quite fit right. Cause he's wearing it over his normal gear. Yes. Yeah. A little bit. So you know, it'll be a form fitting cause it's just to peel off and wrestling. It's not as bad as Terry Taylor's that one year though. The smoking jacket that he had that just looked ridiculous. Yes. They did for that one.
00:39:27
Speaker
VK Wall Street's name is of course a jab at WWF owner Vincent Kennedy McMahon because wrestling companies have the emotional maturity of three-year-old children. Basically, yes.
00:39:39
Speaker
Tony mentions, as you did before, that Finley was going to participate in the Lethal Lottery, but a recent brawl put him on the sidelines, which allowed Taylor to enter. From the sound of what you said earlier, originally it was going to be Finley and Regal. Correct. Instead of having the tag team or the two sworn enemies, you could have had two sworn enemies on both sides. Yes, okay. Haxaw leads a USA chant, and Regal looks rather intimidated.
00:40:04
Speaker
Regal goes to get in, and Haxox swings his 2x4 into the turnbuckle inches from Regal's hand. Regal hilariously oversells that, checking his hand very carefully and showing it to Taylor to check that his fingers are okay. Then he threatens the crowd some more before he finally climbs in. Henan credits Duggan for returning to the ring after becoming a brain donor.
00:40:30
Speaker
Duggan chases Regal to the corner, and Regal cowers, but then makes a muscle pose, pushing his bicep up to make it look bigger. Duggan leads another USA chant. Regal jabs Duggan, but Duggan hip-tosses him and goes for the tag, but Wall Street ignores him. Duggan yells at Wall Street, but Regal attacks from behind. Duggan beats him up, and when Regal tags Taylor, Duggan lunges over and tags Wall Street before he can back off again.
00:40:59
Speaker
Dusty notes the similarity of Taylor and Wall Street's fighting styles. Their looks are pretty similar, too, actually. Yeah, very similar. Taylor and Regal work Wall Street's arm, including a really neat Taylor aerial spin into a wristlock. But Wall Street, ironically, beats Regal in a European uppercut slugfest, and aggressively tags Duggan.
00:41:21
Speaker
Wall Street and Duggan argue, and Regal attacks Duggan from behind again, but they collide on a whip, and Regal tags Taylor as Wall Street walks away to prevent a Duggan tag. Duggan decks the bluebloods and Wall Street, then doubles Taylor over, shelves Regal over him, and while Patrick is distracted preventing Wall Street from charging in, tapes up his fist. Regal tries to warn Taylor, but Taylor turns right into a Duggan tape fist punch for the three count and the win.
00:41:51
Speaker
Patrick somehow doesn't see the roll of tape hanging from Duggan's fist, even as he holds his hand up in victory. He's holding that hand! I know, I know. It's amazing. Oh my gosh. Because Duggan, he does a speed roll on it. It's actually fairly impressive how quickly he does that. But it leads half the roll hanging off his arm. Yeah.
00:42:15
Speaker
I sympathize with him. If you've tried to tear tape, like one-handed especially, that doesn't work too well usually. You get it all tangled and mess the roll up and everything. You really need a dispenser for that, yeah. Yeah. Thoughts on this one? This one for me was pretty inconsistent, which is kind of unfortunate because I really like Regal. I haven't seen a lot of Taylor, but I haven't been disappointed by any of his stuff.
00:42:41
Speaker
Obviously at this point, Claire, I'm not a big fan of Gene Duggan. Yeah, I think we've, I think we've established that. Yeah. Like this case, I wasn't clear. Yeah. So what this match comes down to me is Regal really does his best to make Duggan look good. He oversells reaction to all these hits. He goes over really well for remove. He's giving everything to Duggan and return Duggan is just basically punching people the whole match. Yeah, pretty much.
00:43:08
Speaker
I really feel bad the most for poor Dave Taylor, because other than the one bit you mentioned, he doesn't really do anything in the match until he gets tagged in, accidentally backdrops his own partner and gets punched and pinned. Fair enough. I actually wonder what the booking was if that was going to be Finley with Belfast Bruiser. Like, would it have been the same thing? This would be a very different match, I would imagine. I would think so. So, Duggan, because he's in a match with three heals, he feels like, well, team's okay then.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of his thing during this whole year, I think, is the tape fist punch. You're just like, it never quite makes sense for a face. Right. And in the logic, so he's taped his fist so he hits, what, 10 times harder now? Yeah. Well, it becomes like a rock. Oh, is it like metal in that tape? It's like if you hit someone with a boot that no longer has a foot in it, it's like, you know, suddenly the boot that weighs a lot less, it hits a lot harder.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, the weight is more dispersed differently, so it's all at the bottom, yeah. Yeah. Sure. It's the idea that he's the guy who fights underneath and gets the crouch hand for him. He's playing the cheats all the time. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I thought this wasn't much of a match, but there was some good character work here from Duggan and Wall Street, who nicely played up their animosity for each other with some very passive-aggressive tags, leading up to an actively aggressive punch.
00:44:33
Speaker
The blue bloods really get the short end of the stick here. They don't get to really show off anything impressive and end up losing against opponents who hate each other.
00:44:42
Speaker
Regal, in particular, has a lot more to give than this match allows. And I feel like the Blue Bloods would have benefited from this being a lot longer, so they could work over Duncan or Wall Street more between angry tags. Yeah, this is a great period with Regal, where he's TV champion. He has all these great matches with big stars. You know, him in Bulldog, this one with him in Arne, I know. Obviously, we covered him in Steamboat. Right. And then this is just like, oh, kind of sunset. Exactly, yeah.
00:45:09
Speaker
I did kind of like that Wall Street ended up the distraction to benefit Duggan despite himself in the end. Yeah, sure. Duggan ticks him off, so Wall Street's not running in to help Duggan. He's running in because he's mad at Duggan, but still ends up serving as the distraction. That was pretty funny. Yeah. It's not very face like of Duggan, as we pointed out, to do pretty much anything he does in the final moments of the match, but it is a fun moment. Yeah. So this was enjoyable from a character standpoint, at least.
00:45:38
Speaker
Regal does rebound for this play nicely. He has a singles match at the Great American Bash against Sting. Ooh. Yeah. Like, we're sorry, Regal, that match with Duggan. Here we go. That's what I think happened. Our fifth match, again, in the Lethal Lottery, is Dirty Dick Slater with Colonel Robert Parker and Earl Robert Eaton with Jeeves versus Das Wonderbunk, Alex Wright,
00:46:09
Speaker
And Disco Inferno. The referee for this one is Randy Eller. So, again, long-running rivals Wright and Disco have to team up. That's a shocker. Huh. I guess they'd end up liking it, though, since later on they'll make it official as the dancing fools. Yes. Dusty calls Eaton the Duke of Earl. Hienan jokes that Tony started breakdancing during Disco's entrance, and Dusty joins in with a riff on Tony's dance skills at a party.
00:46:40
Speaker
Tony can't get a word in edgewise for a little bit, it's really funny. Slater and Disco start, and Disco cowers and tells the ref to keep Slater away from his hair. Slater takes Disco down, but Disco kicks free of an ankle lock, then stops to dance. So Slater taps him on the shoulder, elbows him in the head, and chops him. Disco tags right.
00:47:03
Speaker
Wright uses his agility to outwrestle Slater and Eaton in turn and lands a series of strikes on Eaton, culminating in a jumping back kick for two. Slater back in and he lands a neckbreaker, but Wright counters a pile driver with a back body drop and tags Disco, who takes Slater and Eaton down with punches and a jumping elbow. Everybody in, and Disco nearly runs into Wright as Wright charges and crossbodies Eaton and himself out of the ring.
00:47:31
Speaker
Disco dances, but Slater takes off his boot and nails Disco with that most deadly weapon for the three count and the win. Eller is curious about Slater's missing boot, but lets the result stand, and Parker sneaks the boot out in his jacket. He makes sure to show it to the camera. Yes, yeah. Because he has a proper heel. These boots are made for clubbing, Heenan jokes, cracking Dusty up.
00:47:57
Speaker
Chives gives a cigar to Parker to celebrate and Parker pats him on the head. Thoughts on this one? It's pretty nothing and it's really short too. It's about 40 seconds shorter than the last match, which seems like the shortest one, but yeah.
00:48:15
Speaker
So the thing for me with this match is, at this point, and to a certain degree later, Disco is kind of all character and not much else. He has given matches where he's surprising me and does do pretty well, so it's not like he's useless.
00:48:31
Speaker
It's definitely more the character than anything else he brings to the table. In contrast, Alex Wright has the opposite. He doesn't really have much character other than dancing, but he's really good in the ring. He just can't quite match the two things together, find a personality to make his match in the string.
00:48:48
Speaker
accentuating his moves. Yeah. The best match I think I've seen for him for that was the match he had with Anderson. Yes. Something seemed to click in that one more than normal and they actually got more character. But this one, it's back to kind of the normal for Alex, right? Like you said, really good in the ring, but not really anything else going on there. Right.
00:49:07
Speaker
This day, you would watch the Alex Wright match. You're like, oh, he's pretty good. Then you wouldn't remember it, you know, an hour later. Right. You would think the two of them together would sort of compensate, but the way the match is laid out and because it's so short, it's basically went to character from disco. Alex Wright does some okay stuff and then the match is over. Right. Yeah, exactly. The only upside for this match is it's finally good to see Dirty Dicks later for the first time. This true nickname. Yes.
00:49:32
Speaker
Although I say nickname, even though Dirty is not in quotes. Right, so it's just that's his first name, right? Yeah, his first name is, yes. First name Dirty, middle name Dick, last name Slater. He had really mean parents, apparently. Yeah, apparently so. It's like, did anyone just tell him, just go by Rick? Yeah, there you go. Yeah.
00:49:54
Speaker
Before we started the show, this was the version of him that we saw first. And I remember you being just like stunned when we saw him. What was it on Starrcade 84 was it? Where he has like the really good performance on that. And yeah, you were like, Oh man, he reminds me of, who is it? Dean Ambrose. Yeah, for sure. That's our own hand dresser. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:13
Speaker
Yeah, I thought this was a basic short match. Right, and Eden do a pretty decent bit of fast action, but it's not much more than a sample of what they can do before this very quick match is over. Disco doesn't do much other than dance and get attacked from behind, though he's decent enough with his character work. Slater doesn't really show much here either, just a generic big brawler.
00:50:36
Speaker
Unlike the other matches tonight, this had neither the interest of what if these tag partners fight, nor interesting character work. So it really needed something more and it didn't have it. It's not like a bad match, but you can easily skip it. As far as disco now, right go, disco have a match that can bash, but it'd be a dark match. What do you lose at Jindogan?
00:51:01
Speaker
So yeah, not much lateral movement there. Our sixth match in the Lethal Lottery is Diamond Dallas Page with Gigantic Cigar and the Barbarian versus Meng and Hugh Morris. The referee for this one is Randy Anderson. Wow, what a surprise! Barbarian and Meng on different sides? Meng and Hugh Morris together? Imagine the luck!
00:51:32
Speaker
It's a shame they couldn't find someone that was shooting with Barbarian and Teemo to just get everything together in one big match. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting really, really tired of tag matches. It's only like six more, so... I know. Paige and Morris start. Paige shows off and Morris laughs and mimics him, so Paige pokes him in the eyes. Feels like the Three Stooges here. I bet, yeah.
00:51:57
Speaker
Paige works the arm and uses Morris's hair to keep him in a hold, but Morris shoulder blocks him to the floor. Morris dives, but Paige dodges, and Morris eats safety mat. Back in, Morris catches a Paige kick, but Paige hits his spinning lariat for two, then tags Barbarian. Morris soon tags out to bang.
00:52:17
Speaker
Barbarian and Meng beat the crap out of each other with mighty chops, elbows, and closed lines. No selling repeatedly. I'm pretty sure Meng even no sells an iRake. Yes, he does. And then Barbarian no sells his no selling. Until Barbarian finally takes Meng down with a high back kick and DDP runs in so Barbarian can slam him onto Meng. Awesome spot. Yeah.
00:52:43
Speaker
Meng dodges a barbarian elbow drop and headbutts him, then tags Morris. Morris slams barbarian and hits a top rope elbow. In a nice touch, DDP tries to jerk the ropes but is a second too slow. But Morris stops his pin, laughs, and goes for another. DDP cannot believe his luck and succeeds in crotching Morris on the top rope this time. Now he's going to sing in tenor section, huh? Jerk. You had to know that was coming. Yeah, yeah.
00:53:15
Speaker
Barbarian hits a really sloppy superflex, but Meng breaks at 2 with a nasty kick to Barbarian's head. Paige tries to get in, and that distracts Anderson, so Meng slams Barbarian, and Morris hits his moonsault for 2 as Paige saves with an almost sliding elbow drop. Meng and Paige trade blows, and Meng lands a heck of a sidekick as Barbarian bigboots Morris.
00:53:43
Speaker
Meng and Barbarian pin Page and Morris respectively, and Anderson counts three. Meng thinks he's won, but Anderson awards the match to DDP and Barbarian because Page's foot was under the ropes when he was being pinned. He might much more easily have noted that it's because Barbarian and Morris were the legal men. Right, or that one pin started after the other one. True as well.
00:54:10
Speaker
A day's page celebrates with Barbarian. As Henan notes, now, Anderson has to be the ref to tell Meng that he lost when he thought he'd won. Not a fun job. No. Thoughts on this one?
00:54:24
Speaker
It's a strong match overall, but there's definitely a bit of a sloppy quality to it. And a certain way that that works because many barbarians often has real sort of rugged, like, you know, hitting each other really hard and really rough moves that has a nice bit of realism because it, I think it is pretty much pretty much. Yeah.
00:54:44
Speaker
They don't hold back each other at all. It's like when you watch Mick Foley and Terry Funk wrestle. Yes. They would just hit each other full power every time just because they felt they had to, for whatever reason. Or when you watch Vader wrestle anybody. Yes. Very true. Just in the name of barbarians case, there's definitely a cooperative aspect to it. Yes. More so than with Vader. With Vader, you just know what's coming. Right. You have to sort of accept it.
00:55:11
Speaker
But yeah, for every bit that's kind of sloppy, like the superplex theory talked about, there's some really good spots that I think a lot of it comes down to DDP. He has these little touches, like he said, trying to grab the ropes the first time during the top rope move. Just always being aware of where he is and where he's always on is the quality he has here.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure it was going to be he spent what two weeks probably sketching this match out to every single spot. Yes, probably. Obviously, there's no way we can we know for sure what goes on behind the scenes on these. But it does feel like in this and another few moments tonight, you really see DDP's touch. Yes.
00:55:52
Speaker
the intricacy and choreography of a moment that it feels like you get from him. And so I would wager he had a lot of input into the night, especially with it being, as we'll get to much later, a very important night for him. Yes.
00:56:08
Speaker
because it's not just an interesting dichotomy, I guess, because sometimes you're seeing these really rough looking sidekicks and then no selling. Sometimes you're seeing these really creative spots with DDP. Then I'm just seeing some of those are actually generally impressive. Like I thought he Morris hit his moon just all better than I often see him do it this time. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That was a good one. His aim was quite good. Yep. Absolutely.
00:56:30
Speaker
Other than that, once the reflex looking a little scary, it all works here pretty well, I thought. Yeah, I couldn't tell exactly what happened with that when it felt like one of them just didn't have their grip quite right. And so they just it doesn't look as solid as it should and more seems like he starts to slip.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yeah. They get through it. Like, I should clarify, they get through it, it doesn't look like anyone gets hurt. No. But it just is a little scary for a moment. Yeah, the timing wise, it seems like maybe he starts to slip, so you have to throw now or else you don't throw at all. Right, yeah.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah, weird ending aside, watching Meng and the Barbarian just batter each other was a lot of fun. And there's some very neat spots to this, like Paige being slammed onto Meng, or Paige getting a second chance at using the ropes against Hugh Morris. It was another really short match, but they kept the action very fast and pretty intense. And, like we said, aside from the one kind of dangerous super flex by Barbarian and Morris, the moves were pretty crisp, I thought, and the timing was very good.
00:57:30
Speaker
I think most of the matches on the show are all right so far. I should clarify that. It's just that they're also very similar and it's getting very tiring. Yes. Our seventh match also in the Lethal Lottery is Big Bubba and Stevie Ray versus Fire and Ice. That's Scott Flash Norton and Ice Train. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick.
00:57:56
Speaker
Oh look, Fire and Ice just happened to end up together. What are the odds? I like Bubba's trench coat. It's kind of a cool look. The other engine is part of his recent rebranding. Yeah. Stevie Ray is wearing the red Harlem Heat outfit, where Booker wore the blue one earlier. It's kind of a double dragon thing going on, I guess. Oh yeah, I can see that. Speaking of red and blue, Fire and Ice have the same scheme.
00:58:24
Speaker
I'm gonna coordinate that a little bit. Norton and Stevie start. Dusty predicts that Bubba and Stevie are gonna win, but Heenan picks fire and ice. Stevie cheap shots Norton on a break and lands strikes and close lines, but Norton fires back with a flying shoulder block and some splashes in the corner. Big Stevie close line actually sends Norton airborne.
00:58:50
Speaker
That was kind of amazing, honestly, to see. And Stevie tags Bubba for a big windmill punch. Heenan makes fun of Dusty for pronouncing Bubba as Bubber. Yes, he does.
00:59:04
Speaker
Bubba charging splash and he hits the Bubba slam, which is now a spine buster for two. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. He definitely called it that before, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's more of a slide slam. Yeah. Yeah. That was strange. I guess since Ron Simmons left, he can just take that. Yeah. It's a good spine buster. I like it. Yeah, sure.
00:59:25
Speaker
Bubba charges, but Norton tosses him into the air and lets him drop, then tags Ice Train, who lands a surprisingly high jumping butt drop for two. Train catches a punch and crushes Bubba's hand, but they clothesline each other down. Train crawls for the tag, despite that being the first big hit he took.
00:59:47
Speaker
Norton face busters Bubba. Stevie attacks, but Norton clotheslines him. Stevie rolls to the apron, and Norton sends Bubba into him. Then Norton and Train hit a double shoulder block on Bubba for the three count and the win. They should call that the thermal shock. Oh, that'd be good, yeah. That'd be good, yeah. Quoth Hienan, I'm not the kind of guy to say I told you so, but if I was the kind of guy to say I told you so, I'd have to say I told you so.
01:00:16
Speaker
Very nice. Thoughts on this one? Much like the previous match, there's a real rugged quality to this. The difference for me is that there's certain ferocity to what you guys noted with ning and barbarian punching each other. And there's definitely some of that here, but it doesn't quite feel the same. Yeah. There's also less variety to it. Because the previous one, it's a series of slams that kicks and punches or close lines.
01:00:41
Speaker
There's a lot of punching in this match. Right. And a lot of clotheslines. Yes. There's one of these matches, it might even be this one, where Shavania sort of jokes about that, saying it's clothesline and mania. Uh, yeah, it might be this one, yeah. There's been enough of them after, what, seven matches that he's definitely noticing a pattern. Yes. The match overall is pretty decent. Like with Mingua Barbarian, there's a certain realness to how they throw each other around.
01:01:07
Speaker
Which is one of the things, if you were shown to someone who's sort of new to wrestling, it might be good because it's pretty believable the way these big, burly guys knock each other down and throw each other around. Yes. The beef in this match is impressive. Yes. It's USDA approved, yes. The funny thing about the beef in this match, I noticed that Mora went on. So Scott and Norton with his more blonde than usual hair. My wrong is he's not in the way that's blonde, right?
01:01:37
Speaker
I don't think so. No, I know it's actually more like a brunette like these brown hair that might be something he does in the fire and ice era I'm not not actually that could be it might make sense with the flame aspect maybe yeah, but yeah, so with this more blonde hair than ever is this blonde goatee and his all red outfit He looks like buff guy Fieri He really does
01:02:00
Speaker
I can see it. I will put up a side by side. I can see it. On the page. It's eerie. Yep. I'm also really tempted to call Ice Train Snowpiercer, but I'll resist it.
01:02:14
Speaker
For me, perfectly acceptable match, full of big men running into each other and throwing each other around. Ice Train's jumping butt drop was probably the standout. He got impressive height on that. And I want to clarify, that's impressive, period. Not impressive for a guy his size. No, yeah, for sure. He darn near matches Sting's jumping ability with that one. And that's something I know you don't generally like, at least when Finlay does it. No, I mean, you gotta be a big dude like Ice Train for it to make any sense. Sure.
01:02:44
Speaker
It felt really odd how quickly he got back out after taking basically one hard move though, but it's a three-minute match, so match flow is kind of non-existent. This worked well enough, I thought.
01:02:56
Speaker
Depending on the previous match, there's a certain level of extra nuance with what DDP added. That's just lacking here. Otherwise, it's fine. Right, absolutely. There's a bit more thought into the previous one. Where this one is, it's big dudes hitting each other, but there's nothing beyond that. The DDP element, I think we can credit in the previous one for making it just that extra touch better. Absolutely.
01:03:19
Speaker
As you sort of hinted at earlier in the beginning of this, this would be the start of the dungeon doom aspect with the shark when he would lead the group and be constantly attacked by a big bubba. Yes. Leading to him re-breading himself as John Tenta.
01:03:32
Speaker
The main method of attack Bubba would use to get at the shark slash John Tenta would be cutting the poor guy's hair. Yes. The point where he'd shave one side of his head and apparently as like a sort of show of defiance he wouldn't just shave the other side to make a match for quite a while actually. Can you imagine going through the airports like that?
01:03:53
Speaker
No. Poor guy. Poor guy. It's like full hair and beard on one side, right down the middle and nothing on the other. I mean, let's be clear. I would suspect that John Tenta got precisely zero jokes made by anyone going through the airport because he's huge and he would not mess with him. Certainly not within hearing distance of him. Right. Yeah. But man, that poor guy. Yeah.
01:04:17
Speaker
Our eighth match in the final match of the first round of the Lethal Lottery is Eddie Guerrero and The Enforcer, Arne Anderson, versus The Macho Man, Randy Savage, and The Nature Boy, Ric Flair. The referee for this one is Randy Eller. How amazing that Randy Savage and Ric Flair who hate each other have ended up as a team. Can you imagine the luck and look? Flair's best friend, Arne Anderson, is against him. Gas the whore.
01:04:46
Speaker
Yes, it's shocking. I'm just all gassed out from all these surprising events. Yeah. Eddie has his great sparkly jacket. Arne gets the awesome horseman theme, but sadly walks out pretty fast, so we only get a little bit of it. Heenan gives us a great extended woo! As Flair's music starts. That was good, yeah. But Flair doesn't come out.
01:05:15
Speaker
Henan wonders if Savage got to Flair. Savage's music starts, and Savage comes down to the ring. The outfit this time is a little bit of a color clash. He's got the pink and black jacket and pants, but then a silver and black hat. Doesn't look bad, necessarily, but it's just kind of, like, not quite coordinated. Yeah, his pomp and his circumstance don't quite match.
01:05:37
Speaker
Flair's music plays again, and Flair finally peeks out from behind the curtain, as Arne Anderson attacks Savage from behind. It was all a trap, as Flair charges down to the ring and doffs his green and gold robe on the ramp, then climbs in to go after his own partner, Savage.
01:05:54
Speaker
Arne and Flair beat up Savage, but Guerrero drags Arne away and shouts at him. Anderson gets out, and Guerrero wins a slugfest against Flair. Hienan spots Savage lying on the apron and says that he's trying to crawl home. Miss Elizabeth and Woman come to the entrance ramp. Guerrero lands rapid dropkicks, but Flair thumbs him in the eye, quote-unquote, tags Savage, elbows Savage in the head, and forces Guerrero's hand to tag Arne.
01:06:25
Speaker
Arne throws Savage in and beats him up with big strikes as Savage tries to go after Flair. Arne nails his awesome spine buster for two. Mm-hmm, very good. Guerrero and Flair tag in. It's kind of hard to tell with Guerrero, but Flair definitely tags himself in. Flair beats up Savage, but Guerrero taps him on the shoulder, pokes him in the eye, and chops him hard to earn a Flair flop.
01:06:51
Speaker
Guerrero hits a terrific dropkick and a swinging DDT. Savage lunges and takes Flair down for rapid punches. As Eller tries to separate the partners, Arne has words with Guerrero, but when Guerrero looks away, Arne DDTs him. Arne pulls Savage away and smashes him into the barricade and post, and Flair pins Guerrero for the three count and the win.
01:07:18
Speaker
Flair and Savage advance, but Flair and Arne keep beating Savage up outside. Flair brings Elizabeth over, and she slaps Savage. Arne DDTs him, and Flair gives us a woo as the group goes to pose for the camera and show the horsemen sign. Flair goes back to stomp Savage once more, then retrieves some flowers from his ringside table and hands them to Woman as they walk off.
01:07:44
Speaker
We see that Savage has, at least, managed to drag himself to his feet by the barricade, but the commentators wonder if he can continue. Thoughts on this one?
01:07:54
Speaker
It's pretty short, but they cram a lot of story into this one. Yes, they do. I think the real wonder for me here is Eddie, because Eddie fortunately doesn't advance, which is kind of a shame, but this is real Christmas to everything he does in this match. Even the point where he has one drop pick normally and then there's a slight delay, so he actually, instead of doing the drop pick too early, too late, he pauses and then does it at the right time. Yeah, his timing is spot on with everything.
01:08:19
Speaker
So it's that one moment where he could, if he'd gone right when he meant to, he would've been off. He goes, wait, nope, that was good. There's little things like that that separate good wrestlers and great wrestlers. That's the thing you really see in here. The biggest thing for me of this match is the plan that Anderson and Flair have. I get they don't like Randy Savage and obviously he doesn't like them. So their plan is to beat him up severely.
01:08:45
Speaker
but then make sure he wins the next match. So Flair gets into the battle bowl, which makes certain amount of sense, but they still have another match to do. So is Flair's plan to come out and win his tag match by himself?
01:08:58
Speaker
I, presumably, I guess. I mean, it's a Rick Flair thing. There's like three cores of a good plan and then somewhere near the end you're like, wait, this doesn't make any sense. Okay, I'll give you one possible thought that he's got. Go ahead. Maybe because he saw that the Road Warriors and Booker T. and Luger had a double countout in their match. He knows there's going to be a buy.
01:09:21
Speaker
So his plan is to hope that he gets the buyer maybe he thinks he's got someone in his pocket That'll give him the buy and that way he doesn't have to worry about Savage accompanying him for the second match. I mean if there's a way he could guarantee that that would make sense Look, it's still a better plan than his Halloween Havoc 95 one. Okay, we're oh for sure Yeah, it has a complicated months-long plan just to punch sting once or twice. Yes, exactly. I Don't know. It's it's it's just so weird. Yes, it is
01:09:51
Speaker
If this was the only teaming of rivals tonight, I think this would work really, really well. The weirdness of the plan aside, they really pack a lot of emotion into it.
01:10:00
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's not. We're eight matches in, and in every single match so far, we've either gotten a tag team just happening to still end up together, a tag team on opposing sides, or two rivals for us to team up. Not only does it beggar belief that all of this would happen at random, it seriously dilutes the impact of this use of it, which is the one that absolutely needs to have an impact.
01:10:26
Speaker
Seriously, pick one tag team to stay together, one tag team forced to face each other, and one set of rivals to team up. Leave it at that. Even that's a lot, but at least it keeps some variety. As for this match itself, taken purely on its own, it was really good.
01:10:47
Speaker
It's a perfect use of the Battle Bowl concept to get the Heels an opportunity to be really ultra-mega-evil. Yes. Kick the Flare and Savage storyline into an even higher gear, and build up Eddie Guerrero as a terrific babyface. This match felt like a better version of the Starrcade 91 Sting and Abdullah vs. Pillman Aiden match. Yes. In that one, they tried to keep a normal match halfway going, and just kept interrupting.
01:11:14
Speaker
But in this one, they just gave in to the chaos right away. Yeah. It's a good spectacle and it really makes Guerrero look good, both as a person and as a fighter, despite the fact that he finally goes down to a dirty Arne Anderson trick. Yeah. As most do. I enjoyed this one a bunch. I just would have enjoyed it even more if it wasn't the eighth match to try to get cute with the Battle Bowl concept.
01:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, it reminds me of the certain extent of Starkid 85, where every single match has bleeding in it. I think every person in every match bleeds in that show. Pretty darn close, if not. Yeah. 99% of them do. And it's the same show that has that admittedly still really brutal, really well done, I quit match. Right, yes. Between Madame TA and Tony Blanchard.
01:11:59
Speaker
And so if they had no blood and then suddenly that match, it's so much more impact than it does. Right. For that one, they had to go extra level, basically, to be shockingly bloody on a match with everyone bleeding.
Discussion on Storyline Challenges and Performers
01:12:12
Speaker
Leading us to, I believe, the only TVMA rated star kid. Yes. It is the only one we've seen at the parties.
01:12:18
Speaker
I was like, what's on this show? Yeah. But to your point, they don't quite do enough to make this one stand out with so many matches doing the same thing. Yeah. It's hard for them because it's just like you had a terrific idea, I think, here for how to boost this storyline. But unfortunately, you've got, like I said, you've got seven other matches before you start doing at least something like this and one or two in particular.
01:12:45
Speaker
Sullivan and Benoit and then Duggan and Wall Street are already doing the partners that can't get along. Yeah It just really it cheapens it Yeah, and I think the fact that it still makes an impact is a testament to how well they do But it doesn't make near as much of an impact as you want Yeah, the fact that you have four really good people really great people in this match It's the only reason that you said it has the impact it does with all that happens. I
01:13:10
Speaker
If you get done this match where you don't just have them fighting the whole time, that being Savage and Flare, play up the tag part that can't get a long thing, albeit with a more aggressive degree, if you're going to do this match in this show in this order this way anyways.
01:13:24
Speaker
So that way you could have a really good match involving Eddie, Eddie could fight. Savage would be interesting to see. You'd have Flair and Eddie, you'd have all these matchups in there. And then once he's gonna go for finish, have Arne, for example, throw Flair over the top rope to the outside and accidentally get caught. Oh no, he advanced, you know?
01:13:44
Speaker
I could see that, yeah. Something to that degree. Or heck, just throw Savage over the top rope because why the heck not, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I could see doing that. It would be interesting if at least one of the pairings of rivals that shouldn't get along just actually manage to coexist. Yeah. Just to be different, yeah. Yeah. And to your point, if they had done it with Anderson throwing Savage out,
01:14:06
Speaker
That's extra motivation from Savagery Man and you fall within the being up savage in the outside. Right. So then when we get later with that whole thing makes even more sense. And it doesn't feel like there's a giant flaw in the plan that Anderson and Flair have tonight. Right.
01:14:23
Speaker
We cut to our commentary team, and Tony reminds us that the first match was thrown out. Because of that, one team is going to get a bye, moving into Battle Bowl without having to have another match. Dusty notes that Macho probably can't coexist with Flair if they have a second match, and Heenam repeats his point so they start arguing. Sometimes tag teams have to coexist to be successful, Tony says. So do broadcast teams.
01:14:51
Speaker
Hienan looks at Dusty's jacket and says, yeah, but that can't always happen when one guy's wearing a recliner. Tony tries to just move on, talking about the upcoming title matches as the crowd chants Weasel at Hienan. Tony asks if the Giant will win the World Title Match, or Sting, and Hienan wonderfully nods along with Giant and shakes his head at Sting. Tony throws to a wonderful ad for the Great American Bash.
01:15:21
Speaker
Ah, the family outing. Mom, dad, the kids and meet on the grill. This ain't no picnic. It's WCW's Great American Bash. Forget the Backyard Olympics. We've got our own. It's a WCW Father's Day. You'll never forget the Great American Bash. Live and only on pay-per-view. To order, call your cable operator now.
01:15:52
Speaker
Oh man, this video. We see a family backyard barbecue, only one of the kids is Rick Steiner. The meat is cut into a WCW shape, and Scott Steiner creepily laughs at the camera as he grills it. I am unclear on his relation to Rick in this fictional reality that really bothered me. Yeah, I can see that.
01:16:17
Speaker
I do want to see someone in an actual barbecue do a WCW-shaped meet. I kind of, yeah, I kind of wonder that like with that hold together, right? It'd be neat. Sting tells us this ain't no picnic and we get shots of wrestling footage, but we cut back to the barbecue for a moment to see Sting chilling out and Scott Steiner helping a lady chuck a horseshoe at Rick Steiner. Well, the dad looks on and stunned disapproval. It's wonderful. Also, I think I would pay good money to see a WCW backyard Olympics. Yeah.
01:16:49
Speaker
This is when the ones released, they don't know what the show is gonna be, but they know a general idea of this whole summer theme. They just go all out without any story to talk about. Those honestly probably are WCW's best promos. Like when they don't know what's gonna happen, they come up with nonsense, which is great. Yeah, that's true.
Cruiserweight Match Analysis
01:17:09
Speaker
We cut to Gene Okerlund on stage, and he's standing there with Angela, Melissa, and Kim from Hooters.
01:17:15
Speaker
He has Melissa shuffle around some envelopes and draw one to choose the team that will get a buy in the second round. It turns out that Fire and Ice get the buy, going directly to Battle Wall. Word is still out on whether they get to Pasco and collect $200. Gene makes the drawing for the first match of the second round. That'll be Dick Slater and Earl Robert Eaton versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan and VK Wall Street.
01:17:44
Speaker
Gene throws back to Tony, Henan, and Dusty for our next match. But our next match is Brad Armstrong versus The Iceman or The Man of a Thousand Holts, Dean Malenko for Malenko's WCW Cruiserweight Championship. The referee for this one is Randy Anderson.
01:18:05
Speaker
So if you go back and listen to our Starrcade Night in A5 episode and talk about how Jinger Itani would become the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Champion. They'd have a big tournament which would culminate at Hyper Battle 1996. Awesome. A truly Japanese show. Where he'd beat Wild Pegasus, who of course is Chris Benoit with his mullet.
01:18:28
Speaker
So now we have a new title. This is not quite the rebranded Light Heavyweight Championship. And we have a new champion, although it works for somewhere else. So the way you get around that is that since you're a tiny go on one of your pre-taped worldwide shows, which is part of the Universal Studios tapings they would do, which makes me have to go to YouTube or other sources to find the match. Yes. So that match takes place on May 18th.
01:18:54
Speaker
That's the airing date of it, even though it actually happened on May 2nd. Okay. That's less of a break, at least, than the prior show? Yes. But yes, Enjiro Tani makes further than can tell his first appearance as Cruiserweight Champion on their sea show that runs on Saturday night. Oh. So he can lose the title to Dean Malenko the day before Paperview. That sounds like that would be a pretty good match.
01:19:20
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Atani, I recall, is really liking from Starrcade 95. He kind of blew all of us away. Yeah. And then Milenko is always great, so. Mm-hmm. That also means if you don't get a Shinjiro Atani by an Armstrong match. That kind of makes me sad, yeah. As neat as it is to see Armstrong face Milenko, Armstrong Atani would be pretty fascinating as well. Yes.
01:19:43
Speaker
So yeah, to take nothing away from Dean Malenko, it's just kind of weird that they have a champion and then have Lucidile right before the show to put on someone else. Yeah. America jacket. Yes. Brad Armstrong finally, finally comes out wearing the American flag jacket that we've been looking for since the very first time he showed up on the show, which I think was Starrcade 85 or 84, 84 or 85. I can't remember which. I want to say 85. Yeah.
01:20:13
Speaker
I am so happy. Yes. This show is forgiven of all its faults, every single one. Not really. No. But I am super happy to see it. I swear if you put Armstrong and his America jacket with Sting in his Captain Sting-Merica look, you'd have an amazing July 4th wrestler tag team. Absolutely. Better than Stars and Stars for sure. Yeah. I don't care what else happens tonight, Brad Armstrong wins Slampery 1996.
01:20:41
Speaker
The commentators nicely discussed the inversion of expectations represented in this match. In the tournament to set up the title, Brad Armstrong actually made it further than David Malenko did. But Malenko has now become the champion, as you just discussed. And the initially more successful Armstrong is in the role of challenger. That's true.
01:21:01
Speaker
Armstrong gets the advantage in some rapid map wrestling and locks on a surfboard into a side headlock, but Milenko whips free and catches an Armstrong kick, but Armstrong nails an Insegiri. Rapid counters lead to an Armstrong arm drag and drop kick that only barely tags Milenko, but Dusty covers by saying Milenko managed to mostly dodge. Milenko rolls out, and Heaton notes that Armstrong might be ready, but Milenko's the one controlling the tempo.
01:21:29
Speaker
Back in, Milenko challenges for a test of strength, but then just drop kicks Armstrong in the knee. Hienan very nicely sells the Iceman persona by noting that Milenko's lack of change of expression made it really hard to judge what he was about to do.
01:21:45
Speaker
Milenko works over Armstrong's knee with an incredible variety of leg holds, strikes, and slams, including a death lock, rebounding slingshot knee drop, shin breaker, step over toe hold, and tree-of-woe knee drop kick. Armstrong counters off Milenko's shoulders for a roll-up for two, but he's limping so badly that Dusty says the ref might have to stop the match to save his career.
01:22:10
Speaker
Malenko continues working the knee, including drop kicks, a sliding drop kick, and a very cool pretzel fold. Yeah. Pretty, pretty mean hold for sure. Yes. Armstrong looks in intense pain, but will not give up. So Malenko continues the abuse as we get a shot of WCW Spanish announced team. And Tony says this, the first WCW pay-per-view that's being broadcast in Mexico.
01:22:34
Speaker
Armstrong finally gets a foot up on a splash and stuns Milenko. Armstrong hobbles and lands strikes, but his hurt leg slows him down. Though in one case that's actually good as he can't charge in after a corner whip and just watches as Milenko tries to go up and over, then slugs Milenko. Armstrong powerslam and he limps up the ropes for a drop kick, then slaps on Milenko's own Texas cloverleaf hold.
01:23:01
Speaker
Malenko drags himself to the ropes to force a break, then pulls the tights to send Armstrong outside. Armstrong blocks a turnbuckle ram and sends Malenko into it, but his hurt leg slows him down as he tries to go up top, and Malenko stuns him with punches, puts him on his shoulders, and leaps off in a second rope gut buster that may actually have been a knee buster for the three count and the win.
01:23:29
Speaker
Malenko takes his belt and tells the camera only the best. He gives the fallen Armstrong a disdainful glare and makes his exit. On the replay of the finish, Hienen notes that the leaping buster was move number 627 and the cradle pin was 996. Thoughts on this one? This is a really strong technical match like you would assume and expect from Dean Malenko and Bright Armstrong.
01:23:56
Speaker
At this point Malenko is fairly new here, especially literally in the role of champion. So he has a lot to build off of from this match going forward. What you get from what works really well, as you said, his sort of cold demeanor.
01:24:11
Speaker
It plays well in the story. His ability to lock on these really painful mission holes and slow you down. And it's a general psychology of how he does everything. That really works. Like I said, going to the dropping to the knee rather than going to the face is one thing with that. The only thing for me, and this is really not a major knock, is that
01:24:31
Speaker
I haven't seen a lot of later molecular matches. I think his style really works well when he has a much more of a high flying wrestler or luchador. You really see the contrast between his touching the style with holds and locks and slams against the aerial offense. So it's a weird thing because they're both really good wrestlers. I would not take that away from either of them, but they also wrestle very similarly in this match.
01:24:58
Speaker
So you don't quite get the feel like you get with other matches where, for instance, they have a strong going with these flips and kicks and everything, and then they're slowed down and stopped by Milenko. And they fight their way back up and he might counter and some sort of hold. It's a good match. It's just, I think we see better uses of him and his persona overall later. So, but again, I don't want to see the matches back. It's a hundred percent not.
01:25:23
Speaker
I guess I'm just expecting a certain thing for the match overall, but it's still good. Okay. For me, this was excellent. It's an absolute knee work clinic by Milenko after the starting Armstrong flurry. And they had me flashing back to Luger Muda at Stargate 89, which is how abused poor Armstrong's knee was by the end of it. Oh, sure. I feel like I should dub this over with Luger selling sometime. That'd be really fun.
01:25:50
Speaker
Speaking of selling, Armstrong's selling here is nearly perfect, with him remembering to change every single movement in all sorts of little ways to reflect the leg injury, to the extent that there's one point where he hurls a millenco to the corner and does charge after him. But the way he moves on that is like a hobble run. He changes his weight and everything. It's amazing work.
01:26:13
Speaker
Oh yeah. And they make it an important part of the finish with it clearly slowing his climb enough to let Milenko get to him. I'm pretty sure Milenko also punches him in the leg too as part of stunning him. And possibly, though it's a bit hard to tell, having Milenko target the knee with that final second rope buster. From some angles that looks like it hits the knee directly and from some angles it looks like it's more of a normal gut buster. So I couldn't quite tell on that one. I think this match is a great example of how to build a knee injury and have it matter for more than just a submission hold.
01:26:42
Speaker
Once it happens, it affects every single part of the match. This is the first Cruiserweight title match on WCW Pay-Per-View, I believe. It is, yes. And it's a great example of why it's going to become a reliable source of terrific matches for WCW's remaining run. I was trying to think of whether those matches were going to be flashbacks, and I finally figured it out and re-watched it.
01:27:07
Speaker
It's, I believe it started at 84 when we have the Denny Brown Mike Davis match. Oh, okay. The Anybody World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Where you're thinking junior heavyweight means like flipping around all over the place, but instead it's just two lighter wrestlers. Yeah, two lighter wrestlers wrestling the normal technical style. And that much was good, but yeah, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be.
01:27:28
Speaker
We're understandably looking at a match 10 years before Lucha and other stuff like that became popular in the United States. Understanding why it's like that. For me, this one actually also, I can call back to Starrcade 84, but it's to a different match. Okay. That would be Telly Blanchard versus Ricky Steamboat. Because of the same excellence of selling. Sure.
01:27:49
Speaker
that Brad Armstrong is exhibiting in this, where you remember in that match, Steamboat, like every move, he remembered the ribs. And that would affect the way that he moved for everything that he did and his strategy with how he faced Tully and everything. I think Brad Armstrong is pulling into that Steamboat level of selling in this match.
01:28:11
Speaker
Yeah, I do like little touches you see, like you talked about, but also when he puts Linko's own hold on him, Linko's sort of facade of being stone-faced and not caring, you know, a bridge that's being so serious, goes away a little bit when he has to sort of drag himself the rope quickly because he's in pain. He's like, I know exactly what this hold can do. I have to get out of this now. Yes. Yeah.
01:28:34
Speaker
The very next show, the Grand American Bash, we'd have a title match between champion Dean Malenko and challenger Ray Mysterio. Nice. See, that's what I'm expecting. I can see that, yeah. For me, it doesn't take away from this match one bit. Sure, that's fine. But I can understand your point of view on it as well. Gotcha. Our world is about to change. Glacier is coming. Winter is coming.
01:29:01
Speaker
This is an early Glacier promo, so we just get his wonderful knockoff Stargate and the Blood Runs Cold slogan, and we don't yet get to see the Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero knockoff armor. I have no idea how WCW got away with either of those things. My best guess is that they own copyright on one of them, so they can go with it, but I don't think that's enough. Yeah.
01:29:24
Speaker
The extended version of this video, also used for Glacier's return in 2000, earned Glacier John's MVP at Stargate 2000. It did, yes. Which probably tells you just about all you need to know about Stargate 2000. Pretty much, yeah. We go back to Mean Jean, and the Hooters girls have apparently switched name tags for some reason. They do a really stupid joke about him getting all their names wrong and, blessedly, move very swiftly on to the drawing. Yeah.
01:29:53
Speaker
Gene draws the remaining matchups for the second round. Public Enemy versus Savage and Flare is one of them, but Gene isn't sure that Savage will be able to compete. The remaining match is DDP and the Barbarian versus... and Gene pauses to ask the girls where they're going afterwards. To Hooters, of course. He gets their names wrong again, and one of them says that they're gonna drink beer and eat chicken wings at Hooters. Yeah, that's what people go to Hooters for, sure.
01:30:21
Speaker
Yep, what else? Blessedly, he ends the segment by telling us the final team, Bootyman and Rick Steiner, which is probably the only time I'll ever use the word blessedly and any of Ed Leslie's many gimmick names in the same sentence. Yes. Is it worth asking why this is two segments, not one? I was about to ask the very same thing. Okay, good. He does the first drawing and I thought that he was going to do the first drawing and they go to the first match.
01:30:47
Speaker
of the Lethal Lottery round 2 and then come back for the second drawing. But instead, they do the first drawing, go to a match completely separate from the Lethal Lottery, and then come back and for some reason finish the drawing. And you're like, what? Yeah. So then you should go Lethal Lottery, Cruiserweight Tidal Match, then announce the drawings, and then the matches.
01:31:08
Speaker
Right. Or just do, sure, you can do the Cruiserweight title match, but then do the first Lethal Lottery match and then come back for the next drawing. I mean, I'm not campaigning for more of Jean with the Hooterscurls doing drawings in unfunny humor, but, you know, whatever.
Tag Matches Recap and Critique
01:31:23
Speaker
In any case, Jean throws back to the commentary team and it's time to start the second round of the Lethal Lottery.
01:31:31
Speaker
I just want to note here, I had a reaction to this on the show and I had the same exact reaction while I was going through doing my show notes of relief at the end of the Lethal Lottery first round that we were done with tag matches. Just a great swell of good feeling for Malenko versus Armstrong. And then like a gut punch coming back to more tag matches as we reach our 10th match here. Yeah, I can see that.
01:32:01
Speaker
So match 10 is the first match of the second round of the Lethal Lottery, and that is Dirty Dick Slater with Colonel Robert Parker, teaming with Earl Robert Eaton versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan and VK Wall Street. Referee for this one is Randy Eller. I am so done with tag matches. Yeah.
01:32:25
Speaker
Eaton, amusingly, is at the ring almost before his music starts, so we get like four seconds of it before Duggan's music starts. Wall Street bothered to put the full suit back on again. That is dedication. Yeah, right. Duggan and Wall Street brawl, and Slater and Eaton charge in as Dusty wonderfully refers to Eaton as Bob of Earl. I love Dusty Rhodes.
01:32:54
Speaker
Duggan and Wall Street whips later and eaten into each other. Wall Street points out eaten getting back up, so Duggan turns and Wall Street knee strikes Duggan to send them outside. Dusty and Henan point out they should really just stick together. They're gonna get to beat each other up in Battle Bowl anyway, which really is a commentary we could probably apply to Flair and Savage and Sullivan and Benoit as well. For sure, yeah.
01:33:21
Speaker
Slater and Eaton double team Wall Street and get two off of Slater, Russian leg sweep. Duggan charges and Eller stops him, so Duggan almost hurls him outside but rethinks it. Wall Street counters a turnbuckle smash and back body drops Eaton, who rolls out and eats a Duggan headbutt. Back in, Wall Street abdominal stretch is Eaton, but Duggan refuses to cheat by giving leverage.
01:33:46
Speaker
Slater breaks, and Duggan decks both Eaton and Slater. Tags to Slater and Duggan, and Duggan insists that Wall Street get out of the ring before he's gonna turn his back.
01:33:57
Speaker
Duggan gets two with a whip into a punch. Slater whips Duggan to the ropes and goes under, but Duggan strangely bellows as he hops over, then plows into Slater and both go down. Dusty giggles helplessly. Yeah, right. Tags to Wall Street and Eaton, but Wall Street's flurry of offense is quickly stopped with an Eaton eye rake. Heaton oddly says that Eaton needs to tag to a fresh Slater, even though Slater just tagged Eaton.
01:34:25
Speaker
Flare Karma strikes Eaton, and he stumbles to Duggan's corner, but Wall Street accidentally punches Duggan instead of Eaton twice, though the first looks pretty intentional. I think Eaton's out of position, so Wall Street just kind of goes with it. Yeah, seems like I do. Then Eaton correctly dodges the second. Duggan punches Wall Street in revenge, and Eaton rolls up Wall Street for the three count and the win, as Duggan realizes what he's done too late.
01:34:52
Speaker
Hienan notes accurately that it was a pretty fast count. Duggan slugs Wall Street and clotheslines him down and chases Wall Street with his 2x4, but Eller gets in the way and Wall Street flees. Thoughts on this one? All story and punching, which is a interesting synopsis I know. That kind of summarizes Duggan's career, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, basically. That could be his biography title. That would be good. If he used it, he'd give me some money. That's all I gotta say.
01:35:21
Speaker
Yeah, as well as matches where nothing bad happened, other than the Miss Time with the Punch thing, there's no real botches or anything. It's just, there's nothing exciting about the match for me either. All four of them at this point are pretty established wrestling veterans, so they know how to handle themselves, but there's not much really to do here.
01:35:42
Speaker
So it's kind of regular for me. Yeah. The thing that really carries a match through for the live audience is the fact that for some unexpected reason, they love Hacksaw, Jim Duggan. Obviously we're in an agreement on that. No, no, not particularly, but I do get it. Like, look, people love to chant things and half of what he does is, okay, it's time to chant things now. So sure. Sure.
01:36:05
Speaker
It's actually a deal that he gets this frustration, takes the best of him, and a smart tag wrestler like Eaton knows to go for a pen quickly and takes advantage, but otherwise it's pretty forgettable. Nothing to me. Yeah, I thought this was okay from, again, a more angled-than-match kind of perspective, but the concept's almost exactly the same as the Flair Savage vs. Anderson Guerrero match. It's just without the added interest of having a face on both teams. That's true, yeah. Since we just saw this concept with Flair and Savage, it loses any real impact.
01:36:35
Speaker
the actual action is really basic. And again, Dusty and Hienan are really totally right that Duggan and Wall Street will get to kick each other's butts in Battle Ball anyway. So why not just wait? Despite what I said earlier, I kind of get it more with a blood feud like Flare and Savage that they just literally can't help but fight each other. But with these two, it doesn't seem like they're quite that level. So it would have been more interesting if, as you kind of said with the Flare and Savage match, if they kind of hashed out their differences,
01:37:04
Speaker
only to either lose and then brawl, or take out their pent-up aggression in Battle Bull. So this was okay, but deadened by the rest of the show. Agreed. I did kind of like the ending spot, despite the mistiming, I think, as you said. It's neat to see him like he loses it, and then he realizes too late what he's done.
01:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate that aspect too and the way he sold that, but yeah. It's not enough, it's not enough, yeah. So as I mentioned, Ford Duggan would have a dark match or he wrestled a disco inferno. Likewise, we had the same thing with VK Wall Street.
01:37:46
Speaker
against Disco Inferno as well? I wish. No, they both have Dark Slash main event matches before the Great American Bash. Oh, okay. However, they both win, so that's something? Yeah. Who's Wall Street against? I forget. Hold on, I'll look up. Sorry. It's that inconsequential. He beat Jim Powers. Oh, okay. Yep, that is pretty inconsequential there.
01:38:13
Speaker
Our eleventh match is also in the second round of the Lethal Lottery, and is the Public Enemy, that's Flyboy Rocko Rock and Johnny Grunge, versus the Nature Boy Rick Flair and the Macho Man Randy Savage. Referee for this one is Randy Anderson. Rock does the arm waving this time, but Grunge doesn't even bother to join in. Well, he arrests the Macho, he's worn out. Party pooper.
01:38:38
Speaker
Tony namedrops cameraman Jackie Crockett, who had to flee when Duggan chased Wall Street and is just now returning. Savage's music plays, and Tony and Dusty say that he won't come back. But Hienan says Savage is too dumb to quit, so he's gonna come back. But we don't get a Savage, and Flair's music plays. Flair comes out with Elizabeth and Woman.
01:39:02
Speaker
Elizabeth starts throwing savages money to the crowd and heated hilariously says to hold his headset for a minute
01:39:11
Speaker
But Savage charges down the ramp and bowls over Flair. Security and police give chase and pull Savage off of Flair, who lands a few opportune shots while Security is wrestling with Savage. Savage chases again, but Flair flees, and Marcus Bagwell, Scotty Riggs, and Pittman come down to try to help Doug Dillinger talk Savage down. Flair doesn't help matters by trying to get another cheap shot, so Riggs chases him off.
01:39:39
Speaker
Eddie Guerrero comes down to help the others drag Savage out as the crowd chants, Let him go! But Savage is extracted from the arena. Public Enemy wins by forfeit and celebrates with out-of-sync arm waving. Hienan is very confused by their dance and wonders if they used to be window washers. Thoughts on this, I guess, more segment than match?
01:40:02
Speaker
I mean, I'm glad public only won a match. And they'd be two world champions. That's something. Jeez. That still counts. Holy crap, yeah. Yeah, it's a decent enough segment. I don't know that it adds much to the earlier one with Savage and Flare, other than showing that Savage is even more ticked off now. But it worked and did show this escalating.
01:40:25
Speaker
And it's probably more satisfying than just having public enemy come out stand there with no one emerging and win. So, credit to that at least. Sure. Flare and Savage did great and Flare was wonderfully insufferable, sneaking in shots at Savage, even as the guards were trying to save him from Savage. So, it worked. Yeah, everyone did another part and this is, again, except at an angle, not a match. Yeah.
01:40:50
Speaker
Following this, Renish would not be allowed in the building in the next Nitro on Monday, and the committee would decide that he'd be suspended for about a month. Our 12th match is the final match of the second round of the Lethal Lottery, and it's Diamond Dallas Page with Huge Cigar, and the Barbarian versus Booty Man with the Booty Babe, Kimberly, and the Dog Face Gremlin, Rick Steiner.
01:41:19
Speaker
Referee for this one is Nick Patrick. Finally, the last tag match of this show. Sadly, it's also a second Bootyman match. Hienan insists that DDP's cigar is worth $500. Tony is incredulous, and Hienan asks if he's ever had a $500 cigar. Tony says no. Give me 500 bucks, and I'll go get you one, Hienan says. Dusty advises against that.
01:41:47
Speaker
Bootyman and Paige start. Paige yells at Kimberly. She was his valet before joining Johnny B. Bad, then the Bootyman. It's true, yeah. Paige wins a slugfest with an eye rake, but Booty slugs him out through the ropes. Paige tangles himself in the camera cords and pratfalls. Yeah. Bless you, Paige. He's doing everything he can to really... Everything he can, yeah.
01:42:11
Speaker
Booty slams him into the apron, then rolls him back in. Tag to Steiner, who pretty much hits John Cena's Attitude Adjustment for two. Yes. Steiner goes for Turnbuckle Punches, but Page dumps him onto the Turnbuckle to tag Barbarian. Steiner spin cells a Barbarian Shoulder Block, though he starts it a bit early. Barbarian hits a big boot, but Steiner dodges a second one and just flings him overhead.
01:42:39
Speaker
Mm-hmm Steiner top rope belly to belly then a Steiner line for two barbarian power bomb Steiner for two Barbarian front face lock, but Steiner pushes across the rain to tag booty But page distracts Patrick and he sends booty back out. It is Sorry, this is gonna be a better way to say it then tag booty
01:43:05
Speaker
I can't let that one go, sorry. I will be honest, I thought of that, but then I was like, nope, I'm leaving it in. All right, fair enough. It's oddly funny as well to hear Patrick shouting, Booty Man, in his very oddly loud voice at times. Yeah. Barbarian takes the opportunity to fling Steiner over the top rope, and Paige lands some kicks, then flings him inside. Barbarian batters Steiner, but Steiner dumps him on the top rope on a charge, and tags Booty Man. Are you happy? Yes.
01:43:35
Speaker
Booty hits a high knee, get it? For one, as Paige saves. Steiner protests, and Booty shoves Barbarian to the ropes and rolls him up. But Patrick is still with Steiner, so Patrick elbow- Patrick Fullhill turned advanced.
01:43:55
Speaker
Should've seen 97 coming, I guess. Okay. But Patrick is still with Steiner, so Paige elbow drops Booty to break. Steiner cheeses Paige off, and Barbarian pins Booty for the three count and the win. Yes, Booty Man got pinned off a pin break. Yeah. Paige celebrates with Barbarian, but then gives a self-high five and claims he did it all on his own. Thoughts on this one?
01:44:23
Speaker
I thought it was a nice solid hard hitting match overall. Obviously the big selling point here is Barbarian and Rick Steiner just fling each other around like, no regard for each other.
01:44:36
Speaker
Yeah, the video about where he died is out of the way of a big boot and basically gives him a boy to back suplex while his leg is still up there just so quickly. Yes. Terrifying. Yeah, there really is about the Steiners. If they are throwing you, they are throwing you. You have no choice in the matter. Yes. As cooperative as wrestling can be sometimes, it doesn't matter whether you're cooperating with the Steiner or not. Yes, absolutely. You are taking the move they want you to take. And honestly, I would say probably the same thing with the Barbarian.
01:45:06
Speaker
Oh yeah, for sure. The other biggest long point would be DDP really nailing his character work here. Yes. He's selling everything really big. He was like full Buster Keaton tying himself up in the ropes and everything. It was great.
01:45:23
Speaker
I would say the finish is kind of weirdly underwhelming because, yeah, he does an elbow drop while the guy is sort of halfway sitting up in a pin. And that just knocks him out for at least 10 seconds. That felt weird. I thought, like, OK, Barbarian will do something else to him. He'll elbow drop him something. But he literally just rolls him over and pins him. Yeah. It's like, wow. I mean, I know I don't like Booty Man, but that feels pretty insulting.
01:45:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's like with the early survivor series matches where because there's like 25 eliminations in a show, people are taking like drop kicks and getting pinned for three, you know, they would never get to take a pin that way. Yeah. Yeah. It's this weird middle ground between hitting a big move. Like, I don't know. I feel like DB has some sort of big movie he could do to hit on him. I guys distracted, but yes. Can they go as called?
01:46:12
Speaker
Either you do that, or you do the thing where you just reverse the pin again. Right. And everyone holds them down, but somehow that blow was just enough to knock them out completely. It fits the story really well, but yeah, it's kind of, kind of overwhelming in execution. Yeah.
01:46:28
Speaker
Yeah, this was short and pretty basic, but Page provided some good comedy and good timing for his parts. And I agree, watching Barbarian and Steiner fling each other around is great fun. But look, even if we don't count Flair Savage versus Public Enemy, which we probably shouldn't because it didn't happen. No. This is what is it? The 10th tag match on this card? Definitely. Yes. Yeah. I have nothing interesting left to say about tag matches, so I'm just going to say let's move on. Fair enough.
01:46:58
Speaker
Obviously, we've covered what Rick Steiner is doing. He's in the tag match with Byron Ice.
Liger vs. Conan - United States Heavyweight Championship
01:47:02
Speaker
As far as Bootyman goes, he wouldn't do much of anything until he would uncessfully try to join the NWO, which would form later this year. Our 13th match, lucky number 13, is Jushin Thunder Liger with Sonny Ono versus Conan for Conan's WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. Referee for this one is Randy Eller.
01:47:26
Speaker
Oh, thank goodness we're done with tag matches. After winning the US title off of a woman gang earlier in the year, they would run this, not really storyline, but just sort of a booking, I guess, for Conan where he'd face international talents with the US title.
01:47:43
Speaker
So you have him and Eddie Guerrero on one show, but then you also have someone pretending to be international talent, that being Mr. JL. Yes, true. Who, of course, is Jerry Lynn. Yeah. They're sort of using the idea that Conan's an international star from Mexico to have other national stars confusingly around the United States title. I was going to say, that's a little bit weird. But that's basically what they do. You always match to see the international talent sort of play off of that.
01:48:10
Speaker
Dusty goes off to try to find out what's going on with Flare and Savage, so Mike Tenet comes in to replace him and to give us someone at the table who will know what any of these guys' moves are called. Liger has an awesome black-bordered version of his usual cape and mask. It looks really cool. Oh, it's very nice, yeah. Conan comes out with a mask made of straps, a blue and white, I don't know, tunic, and a Mexico baseball cap.
01:48:37
Speaker
Yes. The combination looks a tad strange. Yeah, I think Hienan sells it the best. Yeah, Hienan jokes that Conan should put a light in his closet and he'd be able to find clothes that matched. Yes, exactly.
01:48:50
Speaker
Someone it sounds like mongo mcmichael bellows sunny you'd better bring that belt home, baby I oh, yeah, I heard that I can very who said that I'm pretty sure it's mongo I'm not sure why he cares whether sunny brings the belt home to Japan with him, but he seems to He's just really sold at the story I guess Conan's haircut. Oh, yes is unusual
01:49:15
Speaker
He's mostly bald, but with the remaining hair formed into Ks at one side in the back and a backwards K on the other side. So three Ks. I'm sure you can see how that might be a tad unfortunate. At first I thought the backwards K was him trying to avoid accidentally endorsing one of the most notorious hate groups in the United States, but it may actually be a baseball reference.
01:49:39
Speaker
So in baseball, K is used for strikes and baseball scoring. Yes. And a backwards K is used for a strikeout looking, which I think means that the batter doesn't swing at the third strike. So like you just looked at it, but I might be wrong on that.
01:49:52
Speaker
They will also, I will tell you from my limited knowledge of baseball, if they're tracking someone getting a no-hitter, they will put the Ks out there and they'll always turn the third one to avoid that, the way it looks. That's what I'd heard, yeah. Some people have said one thing on that and some people said another, and obviously I don't watch baseball, so I really didn't know to verify, but yeah. One of the few games I've been to, the guy I was pitching got a no-hitter. He got like 10 in a row, it was really amazing.
01:50:20
Speaker
And they'll be watching as they put the thing up, and they accidentally turn the third one that way. I like to think that's why they did that. Yeah, probably, probably. Anyway, dang it, Conan, get a haircut that doesn't make me have to do research. Yes. Conan almost gets two with an arching pin right off the bat, then a one count. Rapid counter sequence, intermixed with flips, and they pose at each other to applause. Heaton thinks that Conan's hair is advertising for Kmart.
01:50:48
Speaker
Tanay tries to explain and Hinaim repeatedly says he doesn't care. Yes. I love it. Tanay finally gets out that Conan is playing Conan the Rapper on a TV show, apparently adapted from a stage play. Seriously. Yeah. It's like a media thing, I guess.
01:51:06
Speaker
Liger flipping Suntan, and Konnan rolls out. Ono lands a couple very nice kicks, but Konnan sells the first, but then no-sells the second. People really shouldn't no-sell Ono's kicks, they're great. He's like a legit grotty champion, as I recall. Meanwhile, these same people will sell Eric Bischoff's kicks, I guess because he's their boss.
01:51:27
Speaker
Ono lures him into a Liger baseball slide, and Liger mostly misses a dive. Hienen says he should sharpen his mask horns and shish kebab konan. Like that might be a DQ. Maybe. Although Kevin Sullivan hurling the chair at people wasn't earlier, so. That's true, yeah. Back in, Liger Brainbuster earns two and a half as Tine brings up the Liger anime. The theme song to that was his entrance music in Japan, by the way. Nice.
01:51:54
Speaker
I wish WCW had used it. It'd be a rights nightmare, but that never stopped them before Arachna man. Yeah, exactly. Liger and Conan trade holds cross arm breakers from both a Conan STF and a Liger surfboard variant camel clutch and bow and arrow. Today mentions that Liger idolizes flair and you can hear Tony's respect for Liger drop. It's really great.
01:52:24
Speaker
Conan kicks free, and Liger lands rapid punches, and Heaton jokes that he knocked a K off Conan's head. It'd be an improvement. It would. Rapid strike exchange. Summersault kick by Liger, and he hits a superplex and a swan dive... splash? It looked like he was going for a headbutt, but went too far or something. Yeah, I'm not sure on that one. It gets 2 and 9 tenths. Liger dropkick sends Conan out, and he dives after, but Conan dropkicks his knee.
01:52:54
Speaker
Liger flips over a suplex back in and hits a belly to back. Tony and Hinnen point out that he's taking time to follow up, showing off a bit. Great, Liger Fisherman's Buster gets two and a half. Conan reverses a whip. Liger tries to go up and over, but Conan catches his legs and whips him to the mat for two and nine-tenths. Terrific kick-out timing on that one.
01:53:17
Speaker
Conan tries his power drop finisher, but Liger slips free and gets a couple roll-ups for two. Liger Bomb gets two and a half, and the commentators point out he couldn't lock on the pin fully with Conan's size. Conan gets his boots up on a Liger dive, and he hits the power drop for the three count and the win. Conan celebrates with his belt as we get some replays, and Mike Tenet makes his exit after shilling the hotline.
01:53:45
Speaker
1-900-909-9900. It's really weird to hear someone other than Mean Gene say that number. I was thinking the same thing, especially as he has so many segments in the show. Yeah. Thoughts on this one? I thought it was good. It was a really strong competitive match. They told a good story. One that they cover in commentary well is that you're seeing more legit holds like the on bars and the FTFs, sort of integrating that back into wrestling away from just punches and kicks and drop kicks and the like.
01:54:16
Speaker
It's interesting because I so associate Liger with challenging for the light heavyweight title, which he was champion of once, the cruiserweight title, or whatever variations of the same name you'd have for that belt in the countries. So it's interesting seeing him challenge for the US title. Yeah.
01:54:33
Speaker
I almost wondered that regard if that's why he's working this more tactical strike-based match versus a high-flying match. Obviously, to be fair, he's not, you know, we're mysterious as far as high-flying goes, but he definitely seems more focused on submissions and grappling, I guess, in this one than other matches. I could see that, yeah. I mean, and it's also, I think that, if I recall correctly, kind of tends to be Conan style to some extent as well. Yeah.
01:54:59
Speaker
he's doing the luchador thing to some extent but he's not doing it as with as much flipping as you normally get and and as many high flying moves generally from konian right he is the bigger luchador him on the park basically yeah and i can see like are doing the same thing to kind of like work with his style very well yeah
01:55:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of little things throughout the match that are really good. I'd like to talk about how the fact he either can't or doesn't hook the arms on the powerbomb. I like that they're not saying one way or the other whether he tried to and couldn't or just actually didn't try to. Right. And you also have just to point out he'll hit a move and then pause for a second, then go for a pen sometimes rather than going right into it. Right.
01:55:41
Speaker
Given the cover people, it's not surprising this one goes so well. I think the worst thing you see is that one bit where he slips out of the hole briefly, but quickly recovers and does roll up Conan. And that's like, that's so minor. Yeah. I mean, you see that in like any match, any time with it not being quite maintaining connection on some of those roll ups and they cover it really fast. Absolutely.
01:56:04
Speaker
Terrific match between these two they moved quickly but did some really complex work as well a good mix of mat wrestling rapid striking creative holds aerial work and some monster slams They worked really well together and the late match featured a lot of very very tight near falls that made it really exciting It felt like it could go either way at any moment. Mm-hmm. Excellent timing
01:56:27
Speaker
The match built constantly, and it felt like each was ultimately pulling out all the stops against the other. And they did a good job of showing that they'd studied each other as well, countering big moves and holds alike quite nicely.
01:56:39
Speaker
Both were well prepared, but Liger was perhaps overconfident and a few little slip ups gave Conan an opening to get the win. So a good match with a good story to it and really easy to get into. Kind of a rarity on this card to be honest. Yeah. I think the only thing missing for me here is that because as far as I could see there's no buildup to this match,
01:57:01
Speaker
There's not like, you know, Sunny Ono cutting a promo on Kona and Ennio. Right. Because none of that, they have to build the story entirely through their actions in the ring, and they do a good job with that.
01:57:10
Speaker
But because there's no personality there or tension, there's a slight thing that's missing, but otherwise it's a really good match. It's a match that's excellent, but it is very much about the action in the ring and not about anything else that might be going on. There's nothing else beyond it. Yeah. Like you said, that would add some extra attention or extra emotion to it. It's all about just these two guys are facing off for a title and that, that can be fine, but you definitely notice when there's not a further storyline. Yeah, exactly.
01:57:40
Speaker
Though it doesn't in weird contrast a couple matches in this show we talked about they get by and having a story But actually not that great. This is the flip flip side Yeah, you're kind of like can you guys talk to each other and like you guys do story really? Well, can you show these guys that and you guys do action really? Well, can you show these guys that?
01:57:57
Speaker
Yeah. Because I totally understand that there's not going to be a promo battle, you know, Brock Austin style between Liger and Conan for obvious reasons. Though I'd actually love if they tried anyway. That would be great. Yeah. But you have Ono there. That's kind of what he's there for, other than kicking people. So basically they added a little extra spice to this. I wouldn't really agree.
01:58:17
Speaker
Liger doesn't appear again for a little while. I think he makes a couple appearances, but obviously he's both noble next appearance. He is until, uh, this dark eight coming up 96. And actually if I recall, there's an explanation why he has a quite serious brain tumor, as I recall that he has brain surgery. Yeah. And that is back wrestling in like a month. Yeah.
01:58:44
Speaker
We got to Mean Jean, who brings in Ric Flair with Woman, Miss Elizabeth, and Art Anderson. And I just realized that Woman and Miss Elizabeth also have the Double Dragon color scheme tonight. Oh yeah. Woman rubs Jean's neck, but he says he's been with the Hooters Girls. Kay. Huh.
01:59:05
Speaker
Flair says the nut, Randy Savage, got locked up by the police, and he goes in for medical evaluation tomorrow. Savage is gone because he's one flu over the cuckoo's nest. Gene says the crowd may not agree with him, but Flair says the crowd doesn't have the right to disagree with him. Oh, is that how it works? Yeah. Okay. Flair kisses Elizabeth's hand and tells Savage to watch from lockup. He says they're gonna have a pajama lingerie party, and Macho can't do anything about it. But he invites Gene.
01:59:36
Speaker
Flair turns to the subject of Mongo McMichael and says that McMichael was an all-pro and a Super Bowl champ. But now, McMichael had the nerve to tell Flair to back off. But Flair can't get McMichael's wife to stop following him. Mongo comes out and says, you've been writing them checks on my person. Well, Mongo can cash a few on you, my friend. That's an interesting metaphor. Truly one of the great debaters, Mongo McMichael. Yeah.
02:00:04
Speaker
Right up there with Lincoln Douglas. Exactly.
02:00:07
Speaker
Flair says he didn't have the enforcer with him last week, while Arran gives a wonderfully confident smile. Flair challenges Mongo to a tag match, and rattles off a lot of Mongo's former teammates as proposed partners for Mongo. Mongo clarifies that he means Mongo can get anyone he wants, and Flair confirms. Mongo brings out Kevin Green of the Carolina Panthers. Flair says he said retired Flair, but Gene notes he didn't know such thing.
02:00:37
Speaker
Interesting side note the Carolina Panthers actually did their training and Preparation for each season at Wofford College. Oh neat. Yeah Which for blisters, I guess I should clarify is where I went to school. Yes It's me regardless, but yes Green charges flair and flair and are in retreat green has a very strange super thin ponytail. Yeah, I
02:01:02
Speaker
Mongo and Green accept the match. Green says he's ready to rock and roll and Flair and Arne better bring their mouthpieces. Arne removes his shirt in as serious and threatening a manner as one possibly could. But security gets in between the teams and gets Flair and Arne to leave. The football players do an elaborate high five as Dusty rejoins the commentary team and we go back to the ring for Battle Bowl. Any thoughts on this segment overall?
02:01:32
Speaker
It's an interesting choice to put Mongo and Flare in a... As I usually talk about having a, you know, Rock Austin style face-off between Conan and Lager, we get that with Mongo and Flare. Doesn't seem like it even match, but Mongo kind of gets by at least here in the short burst through with the bluster, I would say.
02:01:51
Speaker
He's so animated and so intense. You kind of ignore, for the most part, how weird and the expressions he says are. I think Mongo generally in his career, he gets the energy of promos correct. Yes. But he rarely gets these statements of promos correct. Yes, that's fair. This was, I think, mostly about the future, but it did provide a pretty effective wrap up to the Flair Savage stuff tonight. And it obviously ups the tension between Flair and Mongo quite effectively as well.
02:02:21
Speaker
I think my only thing with this is, like I said, is building up the next show, which you could easily do on Nitro where you're like six other shows you have running. Yeah. That's what I think my feeling on it as well as like, this is fine, but there's no reason that you couldn't have done this on Nitro. Yeah. You did not have to have Mongo pop onto the show for this or Kevin Green pop onto the show for this really. Yeah.
02:02:42
Speaker
I do like how Flair and Arne build up Kevin Green right away, just like backing off really fast from him. And to his credit, he really has a ton of energy and just does his part really nicely. Oh, yeah. He charges in there like high energy, like he's rushing a line, basically. Basically, yeah.
02:02:59
Speaker
I do again have to say I really hope that Mongo and Deborah both said that they were OK with the direction of this angle, because it can be really uncomfortable. And obviously, Mongo and Deborah's marriage does not end up that well later on. But I mean, like during this point, they're married. So I really hope that everyone consented fully to this angle before they decided the direction of it, because it could be really uncomfortable. Yeah, I could see that for sure.
02:03:29
Speaker
Our 14th match is Battle Bowl. The referee for this match is Nick Patrick. This year's Battle Bowl is an eight-man battle royal. You can be eliminated by being thrown over the top rope to the floor or by pinfall. There's no mention of submissions. The last man remaining wins and becomes Lord of the Ring and gets a world title match in the future.
02:03:56
Speaker
So our competitors come out to the ring and they are in order. Scott Flash Norton of Fire and Ice. Ice Train, who is all smiles, of Fire and Ice. Dirty Dick Slater with Colonel Robert Parker. Earl Robert Eaton, I just now realized that the Colonel and the Earl both had the same first name. That's true. Flyboy Rocko Rock of Public Enemy. Johnny Grunge of Public Enemy.
02:04:24
Speaker
Diamond Dallas Page, and The Barbarian of the Faces of Fear. Did anyone expect it would be these men in the final? Tony asks. He then claims he did, and Tony rapidly shoots that down. Nick Patrick is in the ring because Pym Falls are legal, but he appears to be the only referee. Okay, this is a big slow brawl, so I'm just gonna try and call out some highlights. Sure.
02:04:50
Speaker
Paige and Barbarian start out working together better than the actual tag teams. They're like actually teaming up while the others are separating. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Rock tries to splash Barbarian, but Barbarian catches him. Slater almost eliminates Paige, but he lands on the apron. Hienan asks Dusty a strategy in a battle royal, and Dusty says he'd hit Hienan with the big elbow, pin him, and throw him out. I'm not sure he'd have to do both of those things. He would just cut back his bases. I guess so. Yeah.
02:05:18
Speaker
Paige finally betrays Barbarian with a forearm, but Barbarian no-sells, and Paige begs for mercy. Barbarian big-boots him over the top, and to the floor. But, Patrick doesn't see it, so Paige rolls back in. Now see, if they had another ref outside like in those other battle bowls, they'd catch stuff like that. Yeah.
02:05:42
Speaker
As Barbarian tries to throw Eaton out, Dusty mistakenly says that Eaton and Barbarian were partners earlier in the night. Good to know you're paying attention, Dusty. I mean, they're like twins, you know. Ice Train hits a really nice couple of slams on Slater and Brock. WCW tries the split screen again and it's still bad. Oh yeah. Dusty describes it as like two TV screens inserted in the middle of your big old TV screen and says that's progress.
02:06:14
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, let's go with that. Grunz tries a pin on Ice Train, but he kicks out easily. Rock charges at Barbarian, and Barbarian dumps him out, finally giving us elimination number one. Eaton holds Norton for an attempted Slater boot shot, but Norton ducks and out goes Eaton for elimination two. Hienan jokes that Slater is the real booty man. That I will admit got me chuckling pretty good. That's a good one, yeah.
02:06:41
Speaker
Parker smacks Eden with his hat, so Eden decks him. Slater is either dumped out or eliminates himself to save his manager. I'm not sure because the camera didn't catch it. And he goes after Eden with a booted fist. Elimination three. Slater tries to get back in, but Patrick stops him. But Slater nails Norton with the boot, and Paige dumps Norton out. Elimination number four.
02:07:06
Speaker
Ice Train hits great power slams on Page, Barbarian, and Grunge in rapid sequence. Quite smooth on all of those, I thought. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Barbarian and Train double Big Boot Grunge and shake hands, but then Train clotheslines Barbarian. That is the opposite of how I thought that would go. Yeah, right? Page takes that opportunity to Diamond Cutter Barbarian, then Ice Train, then Grunge.
02:07:33
Speaker
That gets Paige, a three count on Grunge, for elimination five. He then crawls over and pins Train for elimination six. He goes for the trifecta and tries pinning Barbarian, but Barbarian kicks out at two. Clearly only because Paige hit him first and pinned him last, which gave him time to recover. Exactly. The commentators, especially Dusty and Hienan, majorly put over Paige and the Diamond Cutter for that moment.
02:08:00
Speaker
Dusty says it was almost the most amazing thing he's ever seen, and Heenan says, no, it just was. Yeah, and then he quickly agrees. Yeah, Dusty quickly agrees. Yeah, you're right. Down to Page and Barbarian. Page protests Patrick's count and gets in his face, shoving him, but Patrick shoves back, and Page goes, but over tea kettle.
02:08:21
Speaker
Barbarian catches a Page kick, and Page tries his spinning Lariat, but Barbarian ducks and clotheslines him down for two. It's a good way of showing Barbarian was learning about his partner. Yeah, absolutely. Page back elbows Barbarian on a charge, and pins him for two with his feet on the ropes. Barbarian dodges a corner charge and rolls him up for two. Barbarian tilts a world pile driver for two and a half, and he puts on a sleeper hold, but Page mule kicks him in the balls.
02:08:48
Speaker
Tony calls it a reflex to Dusty's amusement. Heenan says his knee, quote, double cramped. Yeah. A line dancing move. Yeah. Barbarian powerbomb for two and three quarters. Barbarian top rope headbutt. The page rolls out of the way and hits the diamond cutter. Page gets the three count and the win and becomes Lord of the Ring.
02:09:12
Speaker
The commentators sell the enormity of Page's victory. Weeks ago, he wasn't even in the company, but now he's back and he won a major tournament over some of WCW's best. And Bootyman.
02:09:34
Speaker
Well, I mean, Rocker Rock did all right. Johnny Grunge succeeded at existing, basically, tonight. I will give Johnny Grunge one point for Battle Bull. Okay. When Barbarians throwing Rocker Rock out, you can see Johnny Grunge is trying to get in the way to stop it. Oh, okay. And he dives towards him, and you can see that he stood to the point that he couldn't get there in time. Okay, I'll give him that. But otherwise, yeah, he got hit in the head a lot with a chair. All right, thoughts on Battle Bull?
02:09:59
Speaker
It's definitely kind of there for a lot of it. I guess we're supposed to be drama because we've seen these people go through way too many matches. Yeah. To get here and we're like, what I see the end of their journey and all, but it's not that exciting, honestly. I remember we originally watched, I was thinking it's a long time before you get any pinfalls or eliminations. So I was actually watching the clock and then I realized it's only like about three and a half minutes. I was like, oh, it just feels like 10 minutes, I guess. Yeah.
02:10:28
Speaker
There's just some odd stuff in there, like, before he eliminated, uh, Rocker Rock goes to the outside, which, how many did I mention how dangerous that is, given that it's a battle royal? Yeah. Which is weird, first off. Then he jumps at Barbarian, who catches him, and then doesn't, like, do anything. Right, yeah, nothing really comes of it, yeah. He kind of just sets him down, and I'm like, okay.
02:10:48
Speaker
I don't know whether that was like a miscue thing. Like rock and rock, that'd be a great idea to do a spot. And then Barbara is like, but I'm both three out later. And then just does nothing. I don't know what happened. It's a little weird. Yeah, true. Obviously the big thing here is DBB.
02:11:03
Speaker
Yes. His big moment of being the first person that successfully use pinfall, which is some reason was added to this match with almost no buildup at all. I feel like it gets mentioned at least once on commentary before it actually happens, but I'm not honestly confident on that. Right. I mean, it's the same company where they weirdly turn down the volume on the ring after all the time. So maybe you didn't say it and they just didn't come through on the audio. Yeah. As possible.
02:11:30
Speaker
It's one of those things where if you didn't have this moment and that sort of late game extra match basically have, it'd be pretty underwhelming and forgettable Battle Royal in general. As it is, it at least makes up for the whole thing a bit. It goes somewhere big, but otherwise, yeah, until that point, it's not very exciting.
02:11:50
Speaker
I would agree. I would say this is pretty deadly dull for about the first half. But then it starts to heat up once you start getting to the eliminations. A lot of people start getting eliminated very quickly. And then the last third, I would say, is legitimately good. We get a few very nice moments in Ice Train's power slam sequence and then Paige's series of diamond cutters, which is definitely the coolest thing on the show. Yes. And an amazing way to demonstrate the power of the diamond cutter.
02:12:18
Speaker
And then Barbarian and Page basically have a little singles match here. It's kind of like the ending moments of a longer singles match, at least. Yeah. And that's quite nice. Lots of near falls, a great escalation, and does a ton to establish the perseverance, as the commentators will note, that's later going to be associated with the eventual face version of Diamond Dallas Page. Even though he's a heel on this show, you're really starting to see the tools that he'll use when he switches to Babyface. Yeah.
02:12:46
Speaker
and the way that you can take that character and make him admirable. So this is a major night for Paige and his performance here is star making. It's just a weird match to do it in. Yeah. In total, I think this ended up actually good for me, but just be warned, it has a really slow start. Yeah.
02:13:04
Speaker
The only thing I would say with the Diamond Cutter thing, I'm kind of torn on this. On one hand, it's kind of a shame there's no previous use of the Diamond Cutter in a match in Battle Bowl. Like having win a match, they go, oh, if he hits this, he can beat people. But at the same time, I guess you could argue that him not doing it at all during the previous two matches makes sense because he's keeping that as the ace in the hole, essentially. Yeah, it's the thing he's never shown Barbarian.
02:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I can kind of accept from that point of view, but yeah, it'd be nice if they build up the move, I think. So when he hits it, it's like, oh, it's that move we know works really well. It took out so-and-so. Yeah, I'm torn on it, too. I can see it that way, but I can also see it as like, man, it really makes it a shocking moment when it's suddenly like, wow, this move just took out two guys in a row and nearly took out a third one that just like immediately gets it over.
02:13:58
Speaker
Like, I don't think it would, I don't know, would it cheapen it if he had used it to win an earlier match? It's hard to say on that. I feel like I really like how they used it on this, but I can also see the reverse argument. I don't think it necessarily is bad one way or the other, but I kinda like it that they just went ahead and said, no, we're only gonna do it for this match. Just myself. Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel on that one, but I can see both sides of it. Yeah, absolutely.
02:14:29
Speaker
The very next night, NitroDP would win a single match against Brad Armstrong, but then he interrupted celebrating in the ring this promo with me and Gene coming out to let him know that he's having this kind of match taken away from him.
02:14:43
Speaker
due to one of his feet hitting the floor earlier in the Battle Ball match last night, and they play a replay of it. Yes. I'm trying to figure out if they didn't know about the Shawn Michaels whole thing, 1995 Royal Rumble, that with this, the One Foot Touch on the floor thing, I wonder if they're just not aware of that, which is possible. Or this is like a response thing, where they're saying, well, the One Foot thing still counts as being eliminated. Like, we're gonna, we're, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, these companies are so petty, I could see that.
02:15:11
Speaker
I haven't found Eric Bischoff saying that or confirming that, so I don't know. Yeah. Obviously, the logical conclusion is, okay, so DP was tentatively eliminated, but we can't take the ring away from him, even though I think you can. If he lost, you can't get away from him. No, probably. Although you might be worried about a diamond cutter in the near future if you did it, but... Right.
02:15:33
Speaker
It's a lot to take, okay, so the guy who won it has his win take away from him. Obviously, number two guy, Barbarian, has now won the tower shot. Nope. Nope. The winner of the tower shot is Lex Luger. How? Why? Shut up, that's why. Seriously, there's no explanation. We need to say that the tower shot's going to Lex Luger. Yep. And that's it.
02:15:58
Speaker
I'm torn on this. And I will say like, okay, I'm not, I'm not torn on the execution. The execution is stupid. Yeah. But I kind of recognize the position that they kind of got themselves into here. They want to use battle bowl to build up DDP as a new performer. Yeah. Well, not new performer, but like kick him into high gear. Yeah. They're rebranding in this sense. You know, obviously they do that actually quite well there.
02:16:20
Speaker
But their current world champion is also a guy that they're really trying to build up and make sure Irons himself out as like a high-end performer for them. Yeah, so really they've gotten themselves in a situation here Because of the way they've done this where their choice if they let him go forward with the title match is either
02:16:42
Speaker
Diamond Dallas Page Diamond Cutter is the giant which would be an awesome moment. Yes, but Kind of hurts the giant a lot at a kind of vulnerable moment in his career. Yeah, or the giant chokes lambs page
02:16:57
Speaker
and kills his momentum dead. They almost have to find a way around having this match, because you also can't have the match and have neither of those things happen. At the very least, that would be drastically unsatisfying. So the solution they come up with is not good, but I recognize the reason they had to come up with a solution.
02:17:18
Speaker
I guess I would put it that way. It gives Paige time to grow. It gives him the moment that he needed, and it does actually give him a grievance that he can run on for the next few months. And then when he's ready to turn face and strap a rocket to himself, he is not hurt by that at all, I don't think. So I think it ends up working out, but it kind of ends up working out despite them instead of because of them.
02:17:44
Speaker
Two of the cases where you don't necessarily know how to do it better and not like, oh, just do this, then it's fine. But at the same time, you definitely know they did it wrong. I think the only thing you could have done is, and obviously this is a pre-planning thing, not a post-correction thing, is not how Battle will be for a world title shot. If it's just for the Lord of the Ring title?
02:18:05
Speaker
You can just go with it. Yeah, sure. But the fact that he's going to end up potentially facing the giant for the world title and you can't have either result happen or the guy on the losing end loses a bunch of momentum at a critical point. That's what makes it a problem.
02:18:21
Speaker
So if you'd done it as battle balls, just some other interesting opportunity down the line, I could see that doing it or just do it. It's for Lord of the Ring title in a million dollars. Yeah. You know, you have him going to get back his lot of money. Bingo. Bingo. Sorry. It was bingo, right? Yeah, it wasn't.
02:18:41
Speaker
But I think a big point throughout the show that the Lord of the Rings is this prestigious title you hold for an entire year, presumably because they were playing Semperi 97 to have a battle bowl with the same thing again, which thankfully they didn't. Also thankfully DDP apparently immediately gets his ring rather than having to wait for a year. That's also true, yeah. So they build up this thing you want to win just on its own, and oh yeah, you got a title shot. From this weird title shot thing, this really goes away instantly.
02:19:12
Speaker
The award for winning Battle Bull this time was being declared WCW's Lord of the Ring. At least the award that sticks, as we just said. Correct. So we thought we'd take a stab at deciding our own WCW cast of the Lord of the Rings. So we're going to go for the nine members of the Fellowship, plus Saruman, Elrond, and of course Gollum.
02:19:39
Speaker
The restriction here is that you have to use WCW employees from 1996. They don't have to be on this show, but they do have to be in WCW at some point in 1996. And I will say, I have been looking forward to this for this entire recording.
02:19:58
Speaker
Yeah. I'm so curious if ours are going to be really similar or totally different. There's got to be similar overlap. I feel like there's a whole point to we're going to be different. Well, there's ways you can approach this too. I'm curious we'll have the same reasoning that we approach this by or not. Sure. Do you want to go first or you want me to go first? I can go first if you want. Sure. Go for it. Okay. So the way I'm approaching this is I'm hurting it from narrative sense. So I'm basing it on the storyline we'll get into a little bit, which involves the NWO.
02:20:25
Speaker
So with that in mind, Saruman is, of course, Hulk Hogan. Okay. Because he's the guy trying to take it. So that means, by default, the person that is protecting the one ring, which in case of the world title, is the Giant. Oh, okay. Yeah, my photo is the Giant. So the Giant, that is the Giant. Oh my gosh. Yes. So that means that Sam Wise is, of course, Jimmy Hart.
02:20:50
Speaker
Okay. Because this is loyal companion. That is true, that is true. I remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Sam dons his jacket with Frodo's face on it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Great. It's funny, the one that changes the most on it is Nymerion Pippin. But once I figured out the narrative I'm going with here, I had to make it make sense. As funny as I could make something be. Okay. So sticking with that theme, if giant Frodo and, you know, we're getting done with Doom,
02:21:16
Speaker
Marion Pippen had to be Barbarian and Ming, projectively. Okay, yeah. Two also massive dudes to play the hobbits. Yep, I like it. Yeah, my film looks a little different. Going with Elrond. Elrond, in this case, is someone who is an important authority. It helps guide them on the journey, but ultimately doesn't take part in the adventure.
02:21:38
Speaker
So I have, my other one is JJ Dillon. Oh, okay. The boss there. Yep. So getting into the actual fellowship, I feel like this is probably where ours, ours sync up pretty well. Yeah, we'll see. My Aragorn is Sting. That's probably a duh. Yeah. Yeah.
02:21:56
Speaker
I went back and forth on Legolas a bit. So the idea that he's the competent but fairly emotionless, you'd say, warrior ethanol? Oh, I hope I know where you're going with this. So I had two picks here. I went with, I think, as a safer pick. So my Legolas is Demolinko. Oh, okay. What was your secondary, just to guess? Chris Benoit. Oh, okay.
02:22:19
Speaker
I actually, I thought you were heading towards Alex, right? Oh, no. The acrobatics. Right. No, I meant the yeah, like the strong emotionless warrior that goes through the journey. I can see that. So given his stature as a well-known legendary figure, Mike Gandalf is, of course, Rick Flair. OK. Given his strong, aggressive nature and his beard, Mike Gimli is Randy Savage. OK, I'll get that. Mm hmm. Oh, my gosh.
02:22:50
Speaker
So sticking with the theme and connecting people, the strong warrior who you feel like you should trust, but you can't really trust because you got out to your emotive is Lex Luger as Boromir. Yep. Okay. And of course, Gollum being the third party that obviously wants a title, but helps one that isn't really super helpful because he's own, again, has his own motives. My Gollum is Kevin Sullivan.
02:23:18
Speaker
All right. All right. This is going to be fascinating. Okay. Because indeed we do match up on some of these, but we don't match up on some of these as well. I figured that I think you're going to be very interested in the points where we don't match up. Okay.
02:23:31
Speaker
But I'm going to go down my list. OK, so I'll start with Aragorn, which, as you've likely figured out since I joked about it on the last episode, is Sting. Of course. He's WCW's greatest hero. He's the only one capable of leading them against the greatest threat they'll ever face. And heck, 1997 is pretty much Lord of the Ring Return of the Sting. There you go. Yeah. OK. And I should also mention that I, too, was actually guided by the NWO storyline. Oh, good.
02:23:59
Speaker
I'm curious how you did that one. I will note, I could also see Sting as Gandalf because he has a kind of disappearance and transformed return thing going on. True, yeah. But I'm going to use someone else for that. Okay, fair enough. My Legolas is Scott Steiner.
02:24:16
Speaker
Okay. Because my Gimli is Rick Steiner. Gotcha. And like Legolas and Gimli, these two team up constantly, have one that's slightly more agile and one that's more brawny, and have a bit of a friendly rivalry, wanting to see who's the better fighter. Okay. Though Legolas and Gimli don't directly fight like the Steiners do. True.
02:24:35
Speaker
My Boromir, just like you, I picked Lex Luger. Luger's 96 story is perfect for Boromir. He's a skilled warrior who's struggling with the temptations of power versus his urge to do good and be loyal to his friends. And later on, his momentary betrayal of a friend, expressing his belief that Sting is working with the NWO, is gonna lead to WCW suffering a major defeat to the NWO and indirectly to the splintering of WCW factions, much like Boromir's role in Lord of the Rings.
02:25:04
Speaker
That's true. When he tries to take the ring. Yeah, I gotcha. Yep. My Gandalf. This one's a little bit weird,
WCW Characters and Storyline Parallels to Literature
02:25:10
Speaker
but... Okay. His Diamond Dallas page. Okay. And I'll explain here. Okay, I'm curious. Go ahead. The morality of the character obviously does not fit at this point. No. But, his story in 1996...
02:25:23
Speaker
is that he disappears in the aftermath of a harsh conflict, but returns more powerful than ever and quickly arises to prominence among those facing the harshest threat the WCW will ever face using his unstoppable power, the Diamond Cutter. Okay. So we've got Gandalf falling along with the Balrog and disappearing from the story for a while and then returning in his Gandalf the White form and filled with more power than he's ever had.
02:25:50
Speaker
and DDP doing the same thing. You realize what that makes your Balrog then, right? That would probably be Bootyman, right? Yes, correct. Not the same drama level. And much like the Balrog, he also smells of sulfur. Fair enough. I'll take your word for it. Also, I do have to say the point later where DDP will fake joining the NWO and then beat them up kind of also makes him the inspirational leader type of character. Yeah. Sure.
02:26:18
Speaker
Now here's where we diverge heavily. Okay. You may notice in the story, there are four hobbits.
02:26:24
Speaker
Yes. You may notice that there's another group in wrestling that also has the number four. Ah, interesting. So my Frodo is Rick Flair. Interesting. Flair is the focal member of a four-man group, and though he's a clear villain at this point in 1996, his story a little bit later becomes one of conflict between doing right and achieving power, much like Frodo's temptation over using the ring.
02:26:49
Speaker
You can even look at the eventual collapse of the NWO, at least before its short-lived NWO 2000 resurrection, as a direct result of Ric Flair's defeat of Hulk Hogan at Uncensored 1999, which is a match in which Flair bows to the temptation of power, much like Frodo started to fall to the ring before Gollum chewed his finger off. Correct.
02:27:09
Speaker
Okay. That of course makes my Sam, Flair's best friend and most loyal friend, Arne Anderson. Yeah, for that comment. Also like Sam, he's pretty darn tough. Sure. My Pippin is Brian Pillman. Okay. He's the craziest of the horsemen and the most likely to get the group in trouble or embroiled in conflict. So seems kind of fitting. Sure.
02:27:32
Speaker
My Mary is Dean Malenko. I went a bit into Horseman Future here, but Malenko seems fitting for one of the hobbits that proves himself in battle later in the story, especially since we saw him focusing on the knee tonight, and Mary's biggest moment in The Lord of the Rings may be scoring a strike to the knee of the Witch-King of Angmar, at a critical moment to help Eowyn slay him.
02:27:54
Speaker
I should interject for a moment. I didn't list EO1 largely because WCW has a very small selection of women wrestlers. I guess Medusa by default? Basically Medusa by default, yeah. Who would make a perfectly fine one? Sure.
02:28:07
Speaker
Saruman, I'm gonna agree with you. It is Hulk Hogan. Yes. He's the former hero and leader that's corrupted by greed for power and respect. And he turns into one of WCW's primary antagonists. I will know I also thought of Eric Bischoff for this. He has a little bit more of the authority figure angle. Yeah. And a similar story. But I feel like Hogan fits the bill a little bit better overall since Saruman is actually kind of a fighter. Yeah. In the lead up to Lord of the Rings.
02:28:35
Speaker
Then we can argue that Eric Bischoff is Sauron, not Soromon. True. I also will say though, if you did take Bischoff for this, then Hogan obviously becomes the Witch King of Angmar. Oh yeah, of course.
02:28:47
Speaker
For Elrond, like you, I saw his role is kind of providing moral support and arguing for the need to take on the threat, but not necessarily directly participating in the battle. So for that role, I chose Tony Schiavone. I figured you're going that way. After the NWO angle, he really
02:29:07
Speaker
gets a lot of the, no, WCW's got to stick together. They've got to do everything that he can against the NWO thing in his commentary a lot. For sure, yeah. He don't think he ever goes the extent of actually organizing the resistance, but close enough. Sure. And for Gollum, yes, I agree. It is Kevin Sullivan, definitely.
02:29:26
Speaker
is a short, ranting lunatic who's well acquainted with the call of evil and greed for power that now threatens to corrupt WCW. He also spends much of 1996 varying between alliance and enmity with the horsemen, who are my hobbits, so it totally fits." If you actually that. As a side note, I'm really sad that Tom Zink wasn't around in 1996 WCW though, because he and Pillman would have been a perfect Marian Pippen.
02:29:52
Speaker
I was really curious if you're going to work in Mongo into that, but you put Pillman instead. I almost put Mongo in the Pillman spot as Pippin because he kind of fills the same role in the current Horseman of the craziest one that gets them in trouble. But Pillman just seemed, I could technically still work with him since he was in 1996, so I decided to do so. Yeah, that's fine.
02:30:17
Speaker
I'll see if I have time to Photoshop some of this together for you. That was fun. It was, yes. Oh, Kyle. I'm just picturing Megan the Barbarian trying to play Hobbits right now. Oh, yeah. Get down on your knees. Or the fact that they have to constantly protect Frodo from danger. Yes. So he's either head taller than all of them. Yes. Yeah. Speaking of Frodo.
The Giant and Sting's Championship Match
02:30:44
Speaker
We cut backstage to Mean Jean, who is with Jimmy Hart, who is bouncing around like a nervous wreck, and Frodo Baggins slash The Giant, who is monstrously tall and imposing, like four hobbits stacked on top of each other. Yes, very much so.
02:30:59
Speaker
Guess who I have with me. The seven-foot, four-inch, 472-pound WCW heavyweight champion of the world of Giant. I'm going to talk to him at the moment tonight. He's going to be defending here at Slamboree against Sting. But before we get to that, Jimmy Hart, you are really nervous. You're going to be handcuffed outside of the ring to the total package, Lex Luger. Please, Lex, listen to me. It's not too late. We don't have to be handcuffed together, baby.
02:31:25
Speaker
oh you look at you dribble all over the floor you made a fool of yourself now giant let's talk about staying here's a man that has been to the top of the mountain before on three occasions on five occasions
02:31:37
Speaker
Sting may have gone to the top of the mountain, but the problem is he's not on top of the mountain now, because the giant's on top of the mountain. That means that I'm king of the hill. Stingy can be hungry. You can try to take what's mine, but it's not going to happen. You've been a thorn in my side, a rat under my bed, a cockroach in my apple pie.
02:32:02
Speaker
Tonight, I exterminate everybody! You! Let's move her! Maybe even you if you get in my way. Wait a minute. Earlier on, you made a comment about Diamond Dallas Page. You said, bring on Diamond Dallas Page, the Lord of the Ring. Keep in mind, first things first, you've got to get by this challenger tonight. And a lot of folks are putting their money on sting quite candidly.
02:32:46
Speaker
Some fairly odd metaphors from Giant there, but I thought this was a really good interview.
02:32:52
Speaker
Considering he has been in wrestling for just about a year at this point, he is amazingly comfortable giving promos, and he's totally confident in his persona.
02:33:02
Speaker
He nailed the attitude and confidence in this one, and it's really amazing how quickly this all seems to have come together for him. Oh yeah, silly. Actually, almost literally a year, because the first time he appears is last year's Slamboree, right? That's correct, yeah. This is incredible, dude was a natural for getting into wrestling. Oh yeah. Not just because of the size. Yeah, he absolutely understood the mindset, seemed to, that you had to do with this, yeah.
02:33:27
Speaker
I do think he missed a great opportunity, though. At one point, he says Sting's no longer on top of the mountain because the Giant's there now. He really should have said Sting may have been to the top of the mountain before, but I am the mountain. Between that and the almost winter is coming with Glacier, we've gotten some real Game of Thrones stuff ahead of time. Yeah, we talked about Lord of the Rings tonight, but maybe it's more of a Game of Thrones show.
02:33:57
Speaker
Gene throws back to Tony and it's time for our final match. So our final match is sting accompanied by Lex Luger versus the giant with the mouse, with the mouth, the mouse at the South may be better. Yeah, that would be great. With the mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart for the giants WCW world heavyweight championship referee for this one is Randy Anderson.
02:34:23
Speaker
After winning the no more internship match, uh, early in the year, John would finally beat Ric Flair over the title after some tension would build between them. It's part of the whole, uh, sort of the ending of the Four Horsemen and Dungeon of Doom. The Alliance to End Hulkamania. Correct. Yeah. That would kind of blend into that because obviously doing the title from Flair doesn't make them happy.
02:34:44
Speaker
If following that, they would have this story where Luger was supposed to challenge Giant, but he'd show up late on the one show. So Sting would wrestle instead.
02:34:54
Speaker
There's a moment where Lugo runs in during the main event with his bag, like he just got there somehow. Yes. And she was like, well, and helps ding out, which will lead to in the next week getting his title shot as mentioned before. If I recall correctly, him getting the title shot on the next week involves him literally being shown camping out in front of the arena so that he will not be late for it this time in one of the greatest opening shots of any Nitro ever. Correct, yes. That is how it worked, yeah.
02:35:24
Speaker
You see, Luger bundled up in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk, right outside the area. Let him in! Come on, man. Yeah, like, couldn't you let the poor guy in? Yeah, right. He works there. I mean, he's going to at least. Yeah. Holy crap.
02:35:39
Speaker
Because as part of the whole brick flare and savage thing, Flew would regularly have a table near ringside with flowers and like a buffet practically sometimes. Yes. So he could spend more of savage's money, quote unquote. So as part of that match, John would take Luger outside the table and choke slam him through it. Which you would think would put his, you know, entering a massive tournament in jeopardy, but obviously it did not. Not that it mattered if he didn't make it past the first match and still got a tile shot regardless though.
02:36:08
Speaker
Well, the secret to Luger's selling is the rapid explosion of air released by the noise, it absorbs all the force of the blow, or emits all the force of the blow so it doesn't go into his spine or other vulnerable parts of his body. Is it like the idea if you're falling from an airplane towards an explosion, the blast slows you down and saves your life? Yeah, just this one hasn't yet been busted by Mythbusters. Yes. I think we can get him on back on that. Yeah, yeah.
02:36:35
Speaker
Man Called Sting brings out Sting, accompanied by Lex Luger, as Tony talks about Luger proving himself against the Giant after being thought to be ducking him. We don't get a Sting jacket today. He should have borrowed Armstrong's America jacket. Yeah. Get a neat Sting look, though. He is moving towards Crow Sting's hair, but he has the bright colors and face paint that he's used for the rest of his career. I honestly really like this look that he has in 96. Yeah.
02:37:03
Speaker
The Giant comes out to the Dungeon of Doom's ominous theme, bathed in green light, which looks pretty nice. Tony says Giant doesn't have to beat Sting, and the only thing he can do is whatever he wants. Because even if he gets DQ'd, he still ends up the champ. Dusty agrees, the champ has an advantage, and nobody can match the size and the power of the Giant.
02:37:31
Speaker
Buffer does the introductions. Luger and Hart are going to be handcuffed at ringside. Buffer calls Sting the man known as Sting, which is not quite as catchy. No. Giant is from a part of the world unknown to man. Really? Okay. It's a weird triangle I trace from. Yeah, there you go. Let's get ready to rumble.
02:37:56
Speaker
Sting looks nervous. Giant shoves him around, but Sting tries a high-velocity crossbody, but he bounces clean off and splats on the mat. Stare down, and Giant shoves him, but Sting keeps coming back. Sting tries a sleeper, but Giant knocks him off. Drop kicks and a clothesline, but Giant is not even bothered. Sting, shocked, rolls out, and Luger has to encourage him.
02:38:25
Speaker
Maybe Bubble was right last year that Sting's faith in himself was shaken. Yeah, it just took a while to take effect, yeah. Back in, Sting encourages cheers from the crowd, and they oblige big time. Sting hits an enzigiri, but Giant ignores it, and catapults him across the ring with a big boot.
02:38:43
Speaker
Sting tries a slam, but Giant lands on top for two. Giant is rather tired of letting Sting pinball off of him, so he batters Sting to a pulp with elbow drops shoulder blocks, which Dusty calls battering rams, clubbing blows, a headbutt to the little stingers, chokes, and a body scissors using the ropes. Tony spots Heart talking to Luger, or filibustering for Dusty, and wonders if he's trying to sway Luger back to his side.
02:39:13
Speaker
Anderson catches Giant using the ropes and breaks the hold, so Giant just punts Sting in the gut, ignores a kick, and hurls Sting outside. Giant considers a choke slam through Flair's table, but Luger blocks the table with Jimmy Hart's body. Great spot. It was really good, yeah. With Sting dazed on the apron, Giant tries a drop kick. I repeat, a drop kick.
02:39:39
Speaker
But Luger pulls Sting out of the way and Giant splats on the mat. Heenan builds just how amazing a spectacle Giant's dropkick is. Anderson checks on Sting, but Sting instinctively back elbows him, knocking him out. Giant tries a cross body in the corner, which is amazing to see. But Sting dodges and Giant lands on the top rope. A Stinger splash folds Giant in half.
02:40:09
Speaker
Sting lands hard punches, but heart climbs, Luger follows, and Giant grabs Luger by the throat. Repeated, Stinger splashes can't break the hold, so Sting interposes himself and boots Giant in the face. That does the trick.
02:40:25
Speaker
A day's Luger slumps from the apron, pulling the lighter heart across the turnbuckle. Sting notices heart and tries a stinger splash, but Luger, waking up, accidentally pulls heart down and Sting eats turnbuckle. Sting wobbles and falls, headbutting Giant in the ettin. Anderson recovers. Sting hits a tremendous top rope splash for two, but Giant's kickout throws Sting on to poor Anderson.
02:40:53
Speaker
Another top rope splash, and Sting locks on the scorpion deathlock, but there's no ref. Heart tries to hit Sting with his megaphone, but Luger struggles with him. Luger yanks the megaphone free, but accidentally sends it right into Sting's face. Sting, dazed, is easy prey for the Giant's choke slam, for the three count and the win. Tony and Dusty question if Luger might have done that on purpose.
02:41:21
Speaker
Giant screams into the camera and says he dares anyone to take the belt from him. Luger runs in to check on Sting as we get the replays. Dusty argues that Luger hit Sting on purpose, but Tony actually ends up agreeing with Henan that it was probably an accident.
02:41:36
Speaker
The final hit with the megaphone I thought actually looked better on the replay. From the original angle, it looked like Luger could clearly see Sting before the hit, but on the replay, I felt it was much clearer that he only just turns to look as the megaphone goes flying. Right. Because Sting is turning into the hold as is happening. Right. So it's not like Sting is there and you can look and see him first, yeah. Yeah, Sting ends up in front of them just before the thing comes flying at him, so it's actually very nicely timed, I thought.
02:42:05
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? So I'm of two minds in this match. The first part, I really like how Sting works with Giant. Sting really builds up how strong and powerful, and just how hard to maneuver and knock around Giant is. Commentary really builds up as well. I thought they had a nice job of explaining how strong he is. Like when he does a body suit with his legs, you know, your legs are stronger than your arms, so guy that big, that's even more deadly. That's a nice touch. That was some great commentary there, yeah.
02:42:32
Speaker
So that part of the match I really like. Sting does his part well, Giant reacts well. They're wise to use Giant this way because he's obviously less experienced than Sting is, so they basically let Sting guide the match through these moments, which totally makes sense given he's... but must have been the main character for what, 10 years now at this point? And Giant, as we've just established, has had...
02:42:53
Speaker
literally one year of experience. And not all that even wrestling, yeah. Right. Now the other side of this is all those sort of chicanery they go through on the outside. Some of what I like, like you talk about the bit where Luger blocks the Chokeslam with Art's body is really good. Brilliant. Yeah. There's some good stuff there. Other parts, I like the when he bozily pulls Heart out of the corner in the way. I think that kind of works. Depending on the angle, some of you look at it, it's not clear if
02:43:21
Speaker
he is actually pulling them or not, or hearts just sort of naturally falling out of the way. Yeah. I think that one doesn't come off as well as the megaphone part does. Of the spots where they get involved, that's the one that's weakest to me. Right.
02:43:35
Speaker
This match starts out really strong. You really show Papa Giant is how determined Sting is always fighting through this. Everyone looks really good. And then they get just kind of get really busy. I think they get to the right place in the end. It just, it feels like Giant's an unstoppable monster and Sting is this, you know, guy who can fight from beneath and keeps fighting like we've seen with him in Vader many times at this point. That absolutely works. But then there's just so many bells and whistles going off here. This hasn't happened here for this to happen here, this happened here and so on and so forth.
02:44:05
Speaker
It's so complicated you'd think DDP booked this match. I'd reckon one would DDP go there. Maybe he did. Maybe he was behind the scenes. That would explain a lot.
02:44:17
Speaker
I don't, and I don't dislike the match after that, but it's definitely, it's different. Okay. Cause all of a sudden all these things are happening to allow giant to basically survive in this match for the most part. Obviously him doing the power kick out and accidentally crushing the ref. So it makes them look strong. But overall, you know what I mean? It's just these things have to happen for him to win the match when before he's this indomitable force that's things keeping up with, but just barely. Yeah, I can get that. It takes a slight turn at me. It's still a good match though.
02:44:49
Speaker
For me, after a very dull night for the most part, this brought the kind of spectacle that I wanted. Sure, absolutely. Giant comes off as an incredible, imposing figure who can move with surprising speed and agility, as especially demonstrated by his dropkick and crossbody. Still can't believe he can do those. Yes.
02:45:09
Speaker
Sting may have some of the best crowd reaction we've yet seen from him here, getting them absolutely rabid for his comebacks. And he expertly uses sheer velocity to get across the effort that he's making to take the Giant down, and to make Giant look awesome when he still stands. That opening crossbody by Sting is one of the most amazing bounces you will ever see. He just totally goes for it, and he lets himself fall almost uncontrolled to get across just how hard he hit and how little it moved the Giant.
02:45:39
Speaker
Sting makes the Giant look amazing in this match. And the Giant really doesn't need help looking amazing, but Sting makes it. I was worried Luger and Heart would be a distraction, but I actually thought they just gave the match a deeper storyline. And some intricate but largely well-executed moments, where the tide turns one way or the other because of their involvement, but to me, never really took the focus off Sting versus the Giant.
02:46:05
Speaker
I can see your point on it as well, and I do wonder if part of the reason for all those is, again, Giant has one year of experience. He's not at this age in his career where you would normally be in a match with this magnitude. Oh, for sure, yeah.
02:46:19
Speaker
He gets there because, I mean, why the heck wouldn't you put this guy in your main event immediately? Absolutely. With his size and power and ability to throw drop kicks as a like seven footer and his rockerisma. I mean, I would shoot him to the top too, but there are limitations to his performance still. So I can understand where you're like, okay, he can do this, this and this, then we'll have some chicanery. Yeah. And then he can do this, this and this. You can kind of see that coming across. Yeah.
02:46:48
Speaker
But for me, it worked. I can see some argument the other way as well. I think I just think it's like a touch too many things happening at the end.
02:46:56
Speaker
Yeah. There's just a point where it goes from a straight giant stig match to giant stig match, and now Demihar and Lugar are doing this, and they're doing that. Yeah. And this fall, though, this caused this to happen. It has these domino effects going off. Mm-hmm. I don't dislike the whole thing, and they get ultimately tied together, but there's, yeah, there's like maybe one too many thing that happens to protect the giant, which sort of hurts the story of he's this indomitable force that told him the title, who can stop him.
02:47:23
Speaker
At the same time, I mean, some of the moments actually really get him more hits. Like, he takes, I think, like, five stinger splashes. Oh, that part, no, yeah, that part out of the other hand, yeah. Yeah, no, I get what you're saying on that. Regardless, I thought, excellent match to end the night. And it's another demonstration, both of the greatness of Sting and of the sheer potential that the Giant has, for sure.
02:47:47
Speaker
One thing I was just thinking is kind of funny when we knew we were going to do this show is, so real life timing wise, Paul White slash giant slash big show, as he just went to W's rival company, AW, which is also where Sting went. That's true. Weirdly how both things line up like that. All we need is Christian showing up in this show somehow to make everything line up in a really weird coincidence. Here's him in the crowd. Oh, there we go. Yeah, maybe.
02:48:16
Speaker
Obviously, as we noted just a little bit ago, the Giant would defend his title against Luke Souger at the Great American Bash due to their reasons.
02:48:24
Speaker
Before that, he would go on the very next night tour after this, where he'd randomly have to win the title against, of all people, Ari Anderson. All right. Which I don't mind that match, but it's weird, again, someone who didn't survive one round of Battle Ball getting a title shot. Yeah, he blatantly did not win the Battle Ball tournament. Okay, yeah. Both him and Luger didn't even make it through one match. Right. And it's like, okay. They're the next contenders. Yeah.
02:48:48
Speaker
But yeah, just on the next show, you know, Flair is on commentary for, I think, most of it. And he's like so happy that Arne's gonna get a title match. They never explained why he has a title match. He just does. Yeah. The other thing that's interesting is that, so the nights right before this is the last time when it's just an hour show. Right. They experiment on the very next show, the one with Arne and Giant Wrestling.
02:49:11
Speaker
making 90 minutes. And the very next round with that, which I watch for, obviously, story research, is the full two hour one, which sticks for a while. Yes. Besides being right before within like two months of Bash to the Beach and the industry changing forever, arguably, we also have just even the actual landscape of all the show works changing right around the time of the show. Right. And is the first two hour one, is that the whole show? Yes, correct.
02:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, two weeks after this, everything begins to change. It's during a random match on Night Show, two weeks from after the show, yeah, that Scott Hall and his lovely full denim ensemble makes his first appearance, calling out Scheme Gene and the Nacho Man, among other people. Yes.
02:49:57
Speaker
Yeah, it positions the show interestingly, doesn't it? Yeah. It's really inconsequential and also very consequential. Yeah. Without this show, you probably would not have the rise of DDP, or at least it would look very different than it does.
Event Conclusion and DDP's Rise
02:50:12
Speaker
But also, you can ignore the majority of what happens on this show. Yeah. And the industry is going to change totally starting two weeks from now. Yeah. So yeah, it's fascinating to see that. And both a key show to watch and a show you can also miss without missing much than anything. Yeah.
02:50:31
Speaker
Tony runs down the events of the night and the three title retentions that we saw. Dusty proclaims that Paige won the Lords of the Ring, then argues with Hienan over Luger's complicity in that final strike. Hienan claims Luger's hands were sweaty. Tony signs off as Hienan wonders where Paige put his ring. The Slamboree 96 is done. So overall thoughts on Slamboree 1996?
02:50:59
Speaker
So the thing with this show is it's not actually, I don't think any longer than other shows. Like if you look at the total timestamp on it, it's around like two hours, 45 mentors though, somewhere around there. Yeah. But it feels four times longer. Yeah. In a perfect world, the idea of all this nonstop action for the first eight matches is great. You know, there's no, no break. There's no letdown, but at the same time, there's also no break and no letdown. Right.
02:51:26
Speaker
It's free to recover, so it almost feels like one hour-long match, practically, this first part of the show. Actually, a little over an hour, I think, altogether with intros and exits. So a show that feels so much longer than it actually is, because of the way they formatted, I think to make it seem more exciting.
02:51:44
Speaker
And it does the opposite for at least for me. Yeah. No, I agree It's like it's match match match match match. It's like there is no break between them The last group will leave and the new group will start coming in without any Segment between them whatsoever
02:52:00
Speaker
Yeah. You made a point when we originally watched this together that once we got past the flare savage old thing, like look at the time on this show. We're rolling like an hour and 15 minutes into the show. Yes. But it felt like a whole show just went by because it's eight matches. Exactly right. Yeah.
02:52:16
Speaker
It's one of the shows I really, I don't know, like this, I can't necessarily recommend the whole thing because there's a lot of filler and lots of that's okay. And nothing's really terrible, but so much does so little to stand out. Thankfully the latter half, for the most part, arguably the kind of the latter half of Battle Bowl to sort of cover the other half of it makes up for a bit. It's just one of those shows where the latter half is so much better than the first half, I think.
02:52:43
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not gonna say Slambrey96 is a disaster. No. But it's definitely bad. Yes. It's not that there's any one part that goes badly. In fact, almost every match is on its own, entertaining or at least acceptable.
02:52:59
Speaker
The problem is that of the 14 actual matches on this, I'm excluding Flare and Savage versus the Public Enemy for obvious reasons, 10 are tag matches based around a very similar concept. They just start to lose all meaning and impact after a little while, and I was very much done with them long before we were out of them.
02:53:19
Speaker
There's only so many times that you can see tag partners forced to fight or hated rivals forced to team up on the same show before you just don't care about it anymore. Yeah. Battle Bowl shows are already a bit of a slog with so many matches that just don't generally have their own strong independent stories. The choice to go far, far overboard on repeated themes on this show makes it even worse. There are unquestionably some bright spots.
02:53:46
Speaker
Steiner vs. Steiner, Page's antics, Barbarian vs. Meng, and Savage with Anne vs. Flair are some of the standouts from the tag portion. And aside from that, each of the three singles matches was great for different reasons, and Battle Bowl itself, while slow to start, had a good conclusion that seriously made Diamond Dallas Page as a star.
02:54:08
Speaker
But that's the thing. Watch any individual match from this show, and there's a fair chance you'll enjoy it. But watch the show altogether, and it'll pretty well bore you to death. It's such a strange feeling. I kind of like this match. I kind of like that match. None blew me away, but they were fun. So why don't I like the show? Because there's just too much of the same.
02:54:34
Speaker
I really wish they'd done this differently. Pace it more like Starrcade 92, only show the second round of the Lethal Lottery on this show. Just put the rest on the Nitros leading in. Maybe rearrange things a bit so you still get Steiner vs Steiner as a second round match, sure, but otherwise, the second round matches they had, plus the three singles matches, plus Battle Bull, would make a perfectly nice pay-per-view. Especially since they'd have a lot of extra time to distribute amongst the matches to give them more room to develop.
02:55:02
Speaker
It helps stop the show from feeling so rushed. Yes. Like you were saying. It's like, this isn't stopping. Why does it feel like one match? Yeah, exactly. Well, to your point about splitting the matches up, this is the list of shows currently running with WCW at this time. Monday Night Show, Saturday Night, Prime, Pro, two different shows, apparently. Okay. Main Event, and Worldwide. They did all these shows and they had to put all the Battle Bowl on this show.
02:55:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, if it was more like Starrcade 92, where it was like, okay, we've got some battle bull stuff, but we've got a bunch of other things. Yeah. I think I'd like this way more. For sure. Because I liked that show. Yeah.
02:55:42
Speaker
Production is fine this time aside from missing a tag or two and how Slater got dumped out. No real complaints there. And the commentary team, no surprise, I loved. Some of the best stuff on the night is just the Tony, Bobby, and Dusty talking up a storm bits and the joking and arguments that they get into. But they still manage to do a great job of getting across strategies and storylines in the process.
02:56:05
Speaker
Tine joining them for his one match does a good job as well as an absolutely exhaustive resource of facts on wrestlers and moves and the bit with him trying to explain Conan show as he didn't aggressively tried to stop him was great. Oh, yeah. So it's weird, but this is a bad show without any actual bad moments.
02:56:25
Speaker
It feels bizarre to say that, but it's true. The matches might be short, but they can be fun. There aren't many promos, but the ones they have show tons of energy. The commentary is great, the concepts are interesting, but repeated themes and an overabundance of effectively the same match just ruined this thing, driving it far, far below the quality of prior years.
02:56:47
Speaker
Add to that the utter abandonment of the excellent Legends and Hall of Fame theme. A decision which perplexes me to no end. And this is totally skippable. For sure.
02:57:00
Speaker
So when I went to my rewatch without you, I mostly went through the early battle ball matches to get my thoughts and stuff together. I tend to intentionally didn't watch the singles matches because I wanted to give them their own break, which they don't get on this show. Yeah. So that's why I got more out of watching the main event, the kind of Liger match and then like a Armstrong match by watching them separately. Yep. Breaking all of that up a bit. Yeah. It's one of those shows that you really should do that. Absolutely.
02:57:31
Speaker
All right, at long last, it's time for Match of the Night and MVP. So, Al, you're Match of the Night, please. Hmm, okay, so I'm torn between the Lyricona match, which definitely grew in me on a rewatch. I'm going to throw in time to sort of breathe. For all my critiquing, I did really like the Armstrong-Linko match. And again, for any critiquing I did, I did like the Sting Giant match.
02:57:55
Speaker
Um, I'm so torn. I feel like, I feel like I should go with Lager Conan, but I think just, if part of my complaints about how maybe overbooked the thing is, I think Sting wears a giant as a match that gets the most crowd reaction. So I think that plays it just ahead for me. Okay. Plus it has storyline going into as well, not just being a, a middle of the interesting one off, you know, first time match between two national stars. Okay.
02:58:23
Speaker
Yeah, for me I was also choosing between the exact same three. Obviously there was basically no chance I was going to include a tag match in my list of the top three tonight. No.
02:58:35
Speaker
Yeah, so Armstrong versus Milenko, Conan versus Liger or Giant versus Sting. They all are quite close, but I'm going to go with Armstrong versus Milenko. Okay. Just had a very strong story running through it with Milenko's absolute focus on Armstrong's knee, bolstered by his incredible hold variety and Armstrong's excellent, pretty much steamboat level selling. So for me, it was actually the highlight of the night. Okay.
02:59:02
Speaker
MVP? So in spite of all the taking we give of how the Battle Ball format is laid out, I think MVP, the show has to be DDP. In his matches, good or bad, he was a highlight. Remember what? You can see his influence throughout that. And obviously the show built to his big moment and he definitely delivers on that.
02:59:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm total agreement. This could only go to one man. Diamond Dallas page. It's weird as this night is. It starts his meteoric rise and establishes the diamond cutter as the finisher in WCW. One that he can hit from anywhere and they could put anyone down for the count. Yeah. And as dumb as a battle royal that you can also win by pinfall except almost nobody tries is
02:59:48
Speaker
Paige uses it really well, and he works hard there and in his other two matches to establish himself as a star. His story is central to the night, and he makes the most of it. Honorable mention, though, to Brad Armstrong for the amazing selling and the America jacket. Oh, great. Yes. And they are mentioned to the giant for really delivering in his match. Absolutely. Yeah. Like there were great performances tonight, no doubt. Yeah. I think DDP just has the centrality for sure. Yeah.
03:00:19
Speaker
And that wraps up our review of Slambere 96. If you've enjoyed listening to us tonight, you can find us on Twitter or Facebook as Let's Go to the Ring. Links will be available in the episode description. Follow us for episode announcements and other show details, and share your own thoughts about the Slamberees as we go through. You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, High Heart Radio, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Verbal, or Audible.
03:00:48
Speaker
That's another new one. For sake, let's keep growing, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Keep finding random places I can submit the show, so there you go. Until then. And please, if you've enjoyed this show, give us a rating or review, and share the show through your favorite social media platforms to help others discover us. Many thanks to OSW Review for attendance and pay-per-view figures, and to Gina Trujillo for our logo. Next up, Slambere97. The tradition continues.
03:01:18
Speaker
What tradition? Yeah, wait, what? WSW entirely broke every tradition this year. It should be Slambry 97. The tradition starts. Yes. A new tradition. There you go. That sounds more dignified. It does. Yeah. This is Bob Moore for Alec Pridgen, signing off. Good night, everybody. Happy wrestling.
03:01:51
Speaker
Our eleventh match in the second round of the Lethal Lottery is... Wait, that sounded like it was the eleventh match of the second round. Oh, God, that'd be a horror show. Jeez, yeah.