WCW Nitro 17th June 1996

WCW Nitro 17th June 1996

Stevie Ray vs Rick Steiner
Personally, I feel this is a battle of the two weaker partners in their respective tag teams. It wasn’t a bad match to be honest: a little sloppy in places (most notably when Steiner messed up a Bulldog), but it had it’s fair share of hard hitting moves as well, and was kept short. Steiner won it with the Steiner Line- *1/2

Disco Inferno vs Joe Gomez
Gomez is making his Nitro debut after being beaten down the previous week by the Four Horsemen. He’s an OK wrestler, but nothing special, and this was a solid and short, if unspectacular match. Disco had the match won with a Neckbreaker, but took too much time to pin Gomez, then Gomez rolled him over for three- *1/4

Four Horsemen (Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson) vs American Males
The Horsemen have officially reformed with Steve McMichael joining the previous night. While a step down from the match the American Males had with Flair and Anderson a few weeks earlier, it was still pretty good in places, especially when Benoit was in there, who was as crisp as he ever was at this stage. Despite the best efforts of the American males, Benoit won the match by pinning Riggs following a Gutbuster on the ropes- **3/4

Big Bubba vs John Tenta
A grudge match here, with Tenta trying to get revenge for Bubba cutting his hair off a few weeks earlier. And it was an OK if not very exciting big man match. Bubba had to use his speed and cheat a bit to battle the sheer size of Tenta, who overpowered him with ease. Tenta got a good piece of revenge here, by attacking Jimmy Hart and hitting two big Slams for three (putting his feet on the ropes)- *3/4

Ric Flair vs Randy Savage
A big grudge match with all of the problems Flair has caused Savage over the past few months. It was at times wild, with the match going all around ringside, especially when Savage was in control, while Flair tried to keep the match in the ring for the most part, and cheated at every opportunity to keep Savage down. It was good stuff overall, and very entertaining due to the red hot crowd. The ref got bumped, and Savage went nuts by hitting Elbow after Elbow on Flair, then the Four Horsemen interfered with Mongo hitting Savage with a briefcase, allowing Flair to get three- ***

WCW Cruiserweight Title- Rey Mysterio vs Dean Malenko (c)
This is a rematch of their fantastic match the previous night. It was fantastic stuff as per usual, in a fantastic series of matches they had in 1996. Mysterio used his speed to take Malenko off his feet, while Malenko overpowered Mysterio and worked him over on the mat with submission holds. The crowd weren’t in to it to begin with, but they won the crowd over as the match went on. Mysterio came close with several different pinning combinations, but Malenko defended the title with a Reverse DDT- ***1/2

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Scott Steiner
An enjoyable main event, with Steiner trying to use his power on The Giant, but not being able to get him off his feet, and The Giant could then use his power to control the match. Steiner had bad ribs coming into this match, so The Giant was able to work over those both inside and outside of the ring. When Steiner did manage to get The Giant off his feet, the crowd erupted. Steiner hat The Giant with a wooden chair, smashing it, and it had no effect, allowing The Giant to get three with the Chokeslam. I enjoyed that more than I thought I would- **3/4

Great episode overall. There were four good matches on this show, with the best match being the Cruiserweight Title match, and the other three were all good in their own way. There were no really bad matches on the show, and the matches that didn’t have a lot of potential were kept short. I can easily recommend this show.

8.25/10

WCW Nitro- 10th June 1996

Sorry for the lack of reviews over the past couple of days: I’ve been busy with a lot of stuff, but I do have some time to do some new reviews now. Look out for more over the next few days.

WCW Nitro – 10th June 1996

This is the show where the NWO angle really began to pick up steam, with the arrival of Kevin Nash alongside Scott Hall. I must admit, this angle is just as great as it was all of 13 years ago.

Booker T vs Scott Steiner
You’d have actually been quite surprised to see these two headlining WCW shows just four years later. It was a good match, as these two have good chemistry. There was some good back and forth mat wrestling, with counter holds exchanged again and again. Both wrestlers also put power moves to use, with Scott generally having the advantage in that area. Steiner would get the win with a belly To Belly after Booker T missed a Splash- ***

Jim Powers vs DDP
Not much of a match: it was pretty basic stuff just to get DDP out there and make him look good. In fact due to Powers complete lack of overness, the crowd were noticeably cheering for DDP. After a brief fightback by Powers, DDP got three with the Diamond Cutter- *1/4

Sting vs Meng
A short and solid enough, back and forth match here, with Sting going through his usual array of moves, while Meng try to keep him grounded by cheating and throwing a lot of strikes. His plan didn’t work, as Sting won this match without a whole lot of effort, getting the submission with the Scorpion Deathlock- *1/2

Dave Taylor vs Jim Duggan
I dislike Duggan, and this match did little to change my mind: other than some solid mat wrestling by Taylor, it was just the same old Jim Duggan match we’ve seen over and over. It was almost a squash match, with Duggan dominating the majority of it and getting three after a taped fist shot (I still don’t get why that isn’t a DQ)- 1/2*

The Giant vs Scott Norton
This match came about from The Giant attacking him the previous week. Norton could do little to stand in the way of The Giant, who dominated the match. After Norton missed a Splash on the outside, hitting the ringpost, The Giant gave him a Chokeslam on the floor, and got three in the ring- *

Billy Kidman vs Steven Regal
Kidman is very, very skinny indeed. It was a very short match, with Kidman going all out with his high flying moves, but missed a 450 Splash. Regal then made him tap with a nasty Elevated Crab- *

Public Enemy vs Nasty Boys
As with their match a few weeks earlier, this was a complete brawl, with very little structure to it, as these four just fought all around ringside. I will admit though, it wasn’t to the standard of their earlier match, since weapons were rarely put to use, and Grunge was limited due to a broken arm. But it did go back and forth, and there was some good stuff in here at times, although it simply went too long. Public Enemy won by DQ when Knobbs used a garbage can- *3/4

WCW Tag Team Titles- Sting and Lex Lugar (c) vs Ric Flair and Arn Anderson
Originally, The Renegade and Joe Gomez were supposed to be in this match, but Sting and Lugar replaced them, and I think that was a much better choice. A good tag team main event here, with the crowd red hot for everything, and the wrestling was entertaining and solid throughout. After Sting was worked over for most of the match, Lugar got the hot tag and cleaned house, but The Giant interfered for the DQ. Great stuff, these two teams can’t have a bad match- ***

After the match, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash cut an awesome promo running down WCW and it’s ageing stars. A shame that when the NWO was completely up and running, this was dropped, because if the focus had remained on pushing the young talents over the “dinosaurs”, WCW may have still been here today.

Overall, it’s a two match show to be honest. The main event tag and the opener are the only two matches you need to watch, as well as the NWO angle. The rest of the matches are awful to average.

6.75/10

IWA-MS March Massacre 2007

This review is another from the archive: I’ve not had a lot of time to review new stuff recently, but I hope I can have something properly new done within the next few days.

Your commentators for this event are Ben Jordan and the other spots rotates between Sal and Vito Thomaselli, Mike Quackenbush, Nate Webb (why wasn’t he wrestling?), Tasty Travis (a referee) and Brandon Thomaselli

Jack Thriller cuts a promo before the first match running down the people of Indiana and his opponents

Match 1
Jack Thriller vs Zach McGuire vs Chris Hybrid
I have seen Thriller wrestle before, but I’ve never seen the other two. Zach McGuire is deaf apparently, so I wonder how much this hinders him in the ring. This match was decent,. but sloppy in places and the crowd was completely dead. These three just aren’t quite there yet, they lack experience but they’ll get better with time. The best move of the match would have to be Thriller hitting a Banshee Clothesline on McGuire who was holding Hybrid who got German Suplexed. Thriller makes Hybrid tap to the Figure 4 Leg Lock to win the match- *3/4

Match 2
8 Man Lucha Tag Team Match – CJ Otis, Hillbilly Jed, Indiana Kidd Jr and Jeff Brooks vs ‘Diehard’ Dustin Lee, Vortekz, OMG and Jimmy Shalwin
I’ve seen some of these guys before and some I haven’t, so it may be hard for me to keep track of who’s who. I thought this was a lot of fun, it topped my expectations which weren’t that high to begin with. The match did have some problems, as there were some botched spots and sloppiness at times, but the match also had some good high flying wrestling, and power as well from Otis and Hillbilly Jed, although it had little mat wrestling and was basically a spotfest. CJ Otis would win the match for his team with the Burning Hammer. Very decent lucha tag match- **1/2

Match 3
IWA Light Heavyweight Title Match- ‘The Trendsetter’ Josh Abercrombie (c) vs ‘The Impact Bully’ Brandon Thomaselli
These two have wrestled a lot in the past as well as teaming together, so I expect that this should be good. This actually ended up being heel vs heel, but the dynamic seemed to work, and Josh adapted to playing the face in peril role. And the match was very good, with great matwork and some high flying in there as well, and the two seemed quite evenly matched. Josh slightly slipped on the pinfall to win the match, as he bridged while Brandon was on the ground to get three- ***

After the match, Brandon Thomaselli shakes hands with Josh Abercrombie, but turns on him and leaves. Nate Webb (Josh’s partner in the Trailer Park Boys team) comes to help him.

Chuck Taylor cuts a pre-match promo (for some reason Chuck’s voice reminds me of The Rock’s), throwing insults around about the crowd, then issuing an open challenge to two wrestlers to challenge him for his belt. Ricochet is first to answer the challenge, then Billy Roc comes out to be the second wrestler in this match.

Then before the match starts Chuck Taylor cuts another promo saying he hates Ricochet more than the fat kids in the crowd and says Billy Roc has been ducking him for a year, so he will beat both of them.

Match 4
IWA Heavyweight Title Match- Chuck Taylor (c) vs Billy Roc vs Ricochet
Another good match, I enjoyed this one and it topped my expectations. Taylor has improved a lot in the ring and he wrestled a slower, technical style with lots of cheating compared to Roc who used a mix of high flying and technical wrestling, while Ricochet was going for all out high flying with some innovate offense, and generally there was a lot of innovative moves here. Ricochet botched a few things near the end that hurt the ending, but Taylor got the win with the Omega Driver to retain the title- ***1/4

Chuck Taylor cuts a third promo after the match, saying he did what he said he was going to do, and then challenges Low-Ki to a Street Fight. Taylor’s heel promo’s are excellent.

Jim Fannin cuts a promo towards Jimmy Jacobs, saying he’s had increased the bounty on his head for putting the IWA Title in the trash, then says The Barbarian will be coming to the IWA to take him out.

Match 5
The Iron Saints (Sal and Vito Thomaselli) vs The Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny Basham)
This is my first time seeing The Basham Brothers wrestle outside of the WWE, so I have no real idea what to expect, but I heard great things about Doug in OVW so I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do. A good match, nothing overly special but still good. The Bashams are good wrestlers, although to me they still wrestle pretty much the same way they did on TV, and I didn’t see enough of Doug to see how good he is. The Thomaselli’s were practically dwarfed by the two of them though. So a good, mat based Sports Entertainment style of match. Vito pinned Doug with the Californication after Doug was pulled down from the top rope- **3/4

After the match Danny beats up the Thomaselli’s for cheating him out of a win.

Match 6
Barbed Wire Bat Match – Ian Rotten vs Freakshow
This simply isn’t my thing, so I don’t plan to review it since I can’t give a good account of this style of match- no rating

Match 7
‘Lightning’ Mike Quackenbush vs ‘Double C’ Claudio Castagnoli
The reason I bought this DVD, as these two have had classic matches around the independent scene and I expect no different here. This was yet another great match between these two men, as while they did wrestle this slightly slower than their earlier match, they had more time so were able to build more, and as a result I was able to enjoy this just as much, if not more than their previous encounter. They did some insane stuff as you would expect, too much to mention, but if you liked their first encounter then you’ll love this one. Claudio got the win here once again with a backslide with a bridge Match of the night- ****

Match 8
Four Corners Of Pain Match- Drake Younger vs Insane Lane
Again, this sort of match just isn’t my thing, and I don’t plan to review it, so please buy the DVD and watch for yourself- no rating

Overall this show is solid, and the match that you should buy this DVD for is the Mike Quackenbush-Claudio Castagnoli match, as they had yet another great match. Besides that, there’s not a lot else that stands out as must see, but there are two good matches in Abercrombie-Thomaselli and Roc-Taylor-Ricochet. Mild thumbs up for this event.

IWA Mid South A Phenomenal Invasion II

No new review today, because my day has been pretty bad and I’m simply not in the mood (let’s just say I made a big mistake by even the most idiotic of standards). So here’s another from the archive.

Your commentators are Ben Jordan and Jimmy Jacobs (recovering from his knee injury).

Match 1
Joker w/Eddie Kingston vs Gran Akuma
A meeting of two hard hitters in this one, and a first time meeting. A really enjoyable opener here, with some strong mat wrestling and fast paced action, as well as the hard hitting kick and chop exchanges that you would expect these two to have. I am impressed by Joker, and he is someone I want to see more of, and Akuma impresses me more and more every time I see him (he really need to be in ROH full time). Joker got a rollup out of nowhere when he had Akuma in an Armbar to get the three count. Great match, topping my expectations- ***1/4

After the match, the two wrestlers shake hands.

Before the next match, Joey Eastman decides to do the introductions for his team (he used to be the IWA Mid South ring announcer, but turned into a heel manager recently)

Match 2
Pretty Unreal (Michael Elgin and Ash) w/Joey Eastman vs Naptown Dragons (OMG and ‘Diehard’ Dustin Lee)
I’ve only heard good things about Ash and Elgin, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do. I thought this was a decent tag match, with some good wrestling, but you can tell these guys are inexperienced and they messed up a few moves. Ash and Elgin have some way to go but I see potential in them and they will do well on the indy scene in the next year or two. After a good final few minutes, Elgin and Ash won when Elgin pinned OMG after a Razors Edge-Neckbreaker combo double team move- **1/4

Z-Barr cuts a promo saying he’s tired of people not cheering for him (I wonder why people don’t cheer for him? Maybe because he’s an awful wrestler). He then tells Jimmy Shalwin that he won’t cheat tonight, but subsequently cheats.

Match 3
‘The Hype’ Jimmy Shalwin vs ‘The Most Hated Man In IWA History’ Z-Barr
If I remember correctly, the whole point of Z-Barr being on the roster is because he makes people go to the concession stand to buy stuff. That tell you how good this match was: not very good at all. Press the skip button on your DVD, there’s nothing to see here. One interesting note though: Jimmy Shalwin was apparently the person who told Jimmy Jacobs to wear the furry boots for his Huss gimmick. Jimmy Shalwin pinned Z-Barr with the Moonsault- 1/4*

Again, Joey Eastman does the ring announcing for his wrestler CJ Otis.

Match 4
7 Man Lightweight Rumble- CJ Otis w/Joey Eastman vs Jack Thriller vs Ricochet vs Zach McGuire vs Human Tornado vs Josh Abercrombie vs Billy Roc
This sort of match is always a lot of fun, and this was no different as this proved to be a great high flying bout. The entrants didn’t seem to know when to come out since the ring announcer wasn’t very thorough in his explanation, plus the match suffered from the usual indy spotfest syndrome of everyone getting eliminated within a minute of each other to take the match down to the final participants. Tornado was hugely over with the crowd, the most of anyone in the match. Once Abercrombie came in the match turned insane and got really good, although as I said earlier this was an indy spotfest plain and simple, although a damn good one. The eliminations were as follows-
Jack Thriller by Human Tornado
Zach McGuire by CJ Otis
Ricochet by Billy Roc
Billy Roc by CJ Otis (with an awesome Burning Hammer-Double Stomp combo alongside Human Tornado)
CJ Otis by Josh Abercrombie
Josh Abercrombie and Human Tornado were the final two, and had some great wrestling exchanges, before Josh Abercrombie won a title shot with the Taliban Backpack. That may have been a spotfest, but I loved it and it was done very well- ***1/2 (I know I shouldn’t rate it that high, but I loved it that much)

Before the next match, AJ Styles takes his turn to cut a promo, saying that he doesn’t care who Tiger Mask is and doesn’t care about the fans cheering or clapping him.

Match 5
AJ Styles vs Tiger Mask IV
I wonder why this was so low on the card, as I would have had this as the main event. A good match, but not an excellent, standout match that you would expect these two to have. It just seemed a bit too slow, and AJ seemed to calling in his performance rather than giving his 100% best. Not to mention Tiger Mask was not a spectacular opponent, and was sloppy in his offense at times. But there was some good mat wrestling and high flying at points in this match that helped make this match a decent contest overall. Tiger Mask rolled up AJ to get the three count- **1/2

Match 6
Joey Mercury vs Tyler Black
I always thought Joey was underrated when wrestling the indy’s the first time around, simply because he didn’t do hundreds of flips, but the indy scene has changed and people now appreciate him a lot more after his exploits in WWE. Tyler has also evolved as a performer considerably since I saw him last in the 2006 TPI. This was a good match, and Joey can go despite having some ring rust, and for me looked a few levels above Tyler in terms of ring skill (which is a big compliment considering how good Tyler is). A quick paced match, with lots of high flying, high impact offense, but also some very good matwork, and some close nearfalls towards the end. Unfortunately my DVD messed up and I missed the finish, but – ***1/4

Match 7
‘The Impact Bully’ Brandon Thomaselli vs Jigsaw
A good lightweight bout, although nothing spectacular. Jigsaw wrestled his usual fast paced, high flying lucha style, and was very much the underdog to Thomaselli who cheated at every turn and also used a slower, more power based style. Jigsaw at one point held Thomaselli back so that a fan could chop him. It could maybe have been shortened a little, since it could have been a more effective match for me that way, but besides that I have no real complaints since there were no botches of any kind, and the match flowed well. Brandon Thomaselli retained his title with a move I believe he called the McGuillicutter (it was an Implant DDT of some kind, I am probably wrong wit the name, so e-mail me so I can correct it). Good bout that I actually enjoyed more than Styles/Tiger Mask- ***1/4

Match 8
Chuck Taylor vs Devon Moore
I’ve only seen Moore compete once before, in PWU where he had a great match with Azrieal. Another good match, which was very fast paced, as Moore wrestles a high flying, spotty style while Taylor wrestles quick but uses more heelish tactics and uses everything he can to get the advantage and get the crowd booing him, as well as putting some submission holds to use. Moore is a good wrestler but he still needs some seasoning as he made a few botches here, but was a good opponent for Chuck. Despite some near falls, Taylor was able to retain the belt over Moore when he pinned him with the Omega Driver- **3/4

Match 9
Falls Count Anywhere- Axl Rotten vs Tank
As I stated in my previous IWA review, I am not a fan of this sort of match, so I feel I cant’ give a good account of it, so you’ll need to watch this if your a deathmatch fan to see what you think- no rating

Match 10
Hotstuff Hernandez vs Eddie Kingston
Great, hard hitting main event. Kingston looks to have lost a good deal of weight, he’s almost slim now. Both of these men threw hard forearms, chops, knees and just about everything else, hitting each other very hard and holding nothing back. Both men also used a variety of submissions and power moves, with Hernandez throwing Kingston around like he was a light-heavyweight. And that was much of the story of this match: Hernandez overpowering Kingston, while Kingston tried to fight back with hard hitting strikes and some power moves of his own. Hernandez and Kingston both came close to winning this near the end, but it was Hernandez who would win this in the end with the Border Toss. Best match of the show for me.- ***1/2

This was a very solid show overall. There were no MOTY candidates or excellent, outstanding, must see matches, but the show features 2 ***1/2 and 3 ***1/4 matches, with the rest of the undercard solid barring the Z-Barr match. So this is an easy recommendation.

WCW Nitro 3rd June 1996

WCW Nitro 3rd June 1996

John Tenta vs Big Bubba
This is as a result of Bubba shaving half of Tenta’s head last week. It wasn’t much of a match: Bubba got slammed by Tenta, then Bubba got counted out when he refused to get back in the ring because Tenta had scissors- n/a

High Voltage vs Faces Of Fear
According to Tony Schiavone, this is High Voltage’s first major WCW appearance. The Faces of Fear, other than a brief moment at the beginning of the match, completely destroyed High Voltage here, and they pulled off some impressive stuff I must admit. Meng won it with a Mafia Kick- SQ

Disco Inferno vs Craig Pittman
Not too good a match: the wrestling was sloppy and not very exciting, other than a brief moment of explosiveness from Pittman. Pittman had a Pounce like move, and went for the Code Red, but Disco gave up before he could even lock it in. Bizarre finish- 1/2*

Steven Regal vs Jim Duggan
At this point, Regal’s being built up for his next Television Title run. And he deserved another title reign, since his cowardly heel antics were pure gold here: some of the facial expression here were hysterical. So while it wasn’t that great from a workrate standpoint, it was pretty entertaining. Duggan got the 3 Point Stance, but the ref was distracted by Robert Eaton, then Regal rolled him up for three- *1/2

Kevin Sullivan vs Prince Iaukea
Iaukea was little more than a jobber here, with Sullivan making a statement with the beating he gave here, to show Chris Benoit what he would dish out to him in the future. Sullivan won it with the Double Stomp- SQ

Unfortunately, my copy of this show starts to have major sound issues at this stage, making most of the next match unwatchable. The sound came back after the commercial break mid match, so that’s where I pick this one up from.

Rock N’Roll Express vs Ric Flair and Arn Anderson
What I saw of this match was pretty good: it’s clear the Rock N’Roll Express were over the hill, but they were still capable of good matches. It was pretty much following the usual tag formula of the team: Morton got the hell beaten out of him, then made the hot tag for Gibson to clean house. Following interference from Woman, Gibson was pinned following an Anderson DDT. Really good stuff, although the crowd was pretty much dead.- *** for what I saw, possibly ***1/4 for the whole match

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Ice Train
The outcome could easily be predicted before the match begun: Ice Train didn’t stand a chance. Ice Train was pinned in seconds following a Chokeslam, after a distraction from Jimmy Hart- n/r

Scott Norton came out to help his partner, then The Giant destroyed him as well. This lead to the next match-

Hugh Morris vs Scott Norton
Norton was still out from the Chokeslam, so Morris came in and toyed with him for a while. Morrus took way too long to put him away, giving Norton time to recover, who pinned him after catching Morrus in mid No Laughing Matter, slammed him and covered for three- 1/4*

Steiner Brothers vs Sting and Lex Lugar
This match is as a result of the problems these two teams had in the Sting/Scott Steiner match last week. This match had a problem that stopped it from being great: the first few minutes saw the focus on a call with Randy Savage, angle. But when the focus was on this match, it was pretty good stuff as you would expect, with a hot crowd and solid wrestling. The Giant interfered, hitting a sloppy Chokeslam on Rick and making Scott go over the top for a DQ- **1/2

And then Scott Hall walked out to rip on WCW some more again, and almost got into a fight with Sting, before promising a “big surprise” next week, i.e. Kevin Nash.

Not that great a show to be honest. The only match you really need to go out of your way to see is the Rock N’Roll Express tag match, and even then, it might not exist without the sound problems. The main event tag was solid, but the rest of the show was just throwaway matches and squashes. As a result, I can’t recommend this very highly.

5.75/10

WCW Nitro 27th May 1996

WCW Nitro 27th May 1996

This is an infamous episode of Nitro for many reasons. Not only is this the first 2 hour Nitro, it’s also the beginning of the hottest angle in pro wrestling history: the NWO, with Scott Hall’s appearance.

Our commentators for the first hour are Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyzko, while Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan commentate on the second hour.

Arn Anderson and Ric Flair vs American Males
This is, other than the Tag Title win, the biggest match the American Males had in WCW (before Bagwell broke out on his own). And it was a pretty good tag team match, with the American Males holding their own here. Riggs had his leg worked over for much of the match by Anderson and Flair, and the Males had brief fire filled fightbacks. Despite coming close, Flair got the pin on Riggs after an Anderson DDT. Very enjoyable match- ***

Mike Enos vs Steve Doll
A complete throwaway match: the big thing here was Scott Hall walked out to the ring to cut an infamous interview about the Monday Night War, which would lead to the NWO. And personally, that was better than the match ever would be. It was a no contest- n/r

Craig Pittman vs DDP
Pretty average stuff, since Pittman is an average worker and DDP couldn’t really carry him. It was kept short, and DDP dominated the majority of it. Pittman got the Code Red late on, but DDP grabbed Teddy Long, and that distracted Pittman long enough to allow DDP to get the Diamond Cutter for three- 3/4*

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Shark
A battle of two very big men, it was not that great. A bit sluggish and dull, the only real highlight was The Giant slamming Shark with ease, with the rest basically just being a whole load of punches. The Giant won with the Chokeslam- 3/4*

Maxx vs Lex Lugar
Again, a very average, sluggish match, because Maxx is not a very good wrestler and Lugar didn’t have the skill to carry him. Maxx should have just been a jobber here, as the crowd didn’t react that much to him and were massively behind Lugar, but he had too much offense. Lugar would eventually get the win with a Torture Rack- 1/2*

Bobby Walker vs Brad Armstrong
These two had a good match on an episode of WCW Pro if I remember correctly, but they didn’t match it here. While the action was solid at times, there was a lot of botches and sloppiness from the rookie, so this hurt the match quite a bit. Plus the crowd were dead and barely reacted to anything. Walker pinned him with some kind of Flipping Senton off the top rope (he slipped in mid move so I wasn’t sure what it was)- *

Steven Regal vs Alex Wright
Some good European style action here, with back and forth mat wrestling, as well as some high risk moves from Wright. Regal’s methodical strategy seemed to work better for him here, with Wright spending much of the match on the mat in submission holds. Wright was only limited to brief offensive spurts and quick near falls. Regal got the fall with a bridging pin, countering a Monkey Flip- **1/2

Scott Steiner vs Sting
A battle of two future Main Event Mafia members. And it was a good match between two great wrestlers. Steiner overpowered Sting with a series of big, high impact moves, while Sting used his agility and speed to take down Steiner. Overall a great match that went back and forth and had plenty of good wrestling, plus a hot crowd. The match would be a no contest when Lex Lugar and Rick Steiner interfered- ***1/4

A mixed big here. On the one hand, there were two great matches, and a solid one, but on the other hand the rest of the show was very average. The two good matches could probably be seen on any other show, so I probably have to rate this a little lower as a result. Try to find the two good matches, and don’t go out of your way to see the rest.

6.75/10

WCW Nitro 20th May 1996

Finally, there’s no more Steve McMichael on commentary. This is also an extended 90 minute edition of Nitro.

Fire and Ice vs The Steiners
Ice Train’s beginning to remind me of D’Lo Brown, only not quite as good in the ring. This was solid enough tag team action, and I was surprised by some of the stuff these two teams were able to pull out. The Steiners were on in this match, that was for sure. My only complaint would be that the match was a little formulatic at times, but the high impact moves made up for it. This ended in a double countout when the teams brawled around ringside- **3/4

Eddie Guerrero vs Ric Flair
Guerrero gets this match based on the beating he took from Flair and Arn Anderson the previous night. This was good stuff, with Guerrero taking the match to Flair, who tried to school his younger opponent by slowing the match down and cheating. In many ways, you could call this a new age Flair/Steamboat (due to the similarities Guerrero possessed to Steamboat in terms of ring style), although nowhere near the quality of those matches. Still, it was good stuff and was given lots of time, plus had a hot crowd (it was amazing to see how much more the crowd were behind Guerrero than a few months previous). Guerrero hat the Frog Splash, but hurt his knee, then Flair locked the Figure 4 for the win- ***1/4

Ric Flair joins the commentary team from here on in.

Faces Of Fear vs Sting and Lex Lugar
Not a bad match, but nothing special either: it was just your regular formula tag team match. Flair’s commentary was more entertaining than the match itself, although you could admit that his commentary would be more entertaining than a five star match. So an average match but entertaining enough. Sting hit The Barbarian with a Top Rope Splash, and Lugar covered for three- *3/4

Brad Armstrong vs DDP
The first time we’ve seen DDP for a while, due to being poor for a few months. And I enjoyed this match, it was well wrestled and Armstrong made DDP look very good, and Armstrong looking good when he was on offense. A short match in the end was won by DDP with the Diamond Cutter- **

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Arn Anderson
A surprisingly short match, with Anderson trying everything in his arsenal to get the win, but The Giant barely broke a sweat in controlling and dominating this match, with Anderson’s offense having little effect. Anderson’s last ditch move was to go for the DDT, but The Giant just grabbed him by the throat and hat the Chokeslam for three- *

A good show, with two good matches in the opener and the Flair/Guerrero match. It went downhill from there, but there wasn’t anything offensively bad, plus you got very entertaining commentary from Ric Flair. Solid show, so a solid recommendation.
7/10

WCW Nitro 6th-13th May 1996

WCW Nitro 6th May 1996

Hugh Morrus vs Randy Savage
Morrus jumps Savage before the bell, and was very aggressive here. The match turned out to be nothing special in the end, with Morrus doing what Bobby Eaton did in Savage’s last match by trying to anger him, then Savage snaps and tries to hang Morrus with his ring jacket. That obviously led to a DQ, and Savage goes crazy and destroys the ref after the match- *

Dean Malenko vs Jushin Liger
Quite a nice surprise to see this match, and it was great stuff as you would expect from them. Liger went for high flying and high impact moves here, while Malenko tried to ground him with submissions and technical wrestling. My only problem here was that the focus tended to be on Ric Flair who came out to watch, and a commercial break hurt it as well. Malenko got the fall with a Tiger Driver. Great action, although not as crisp as they usually would be, so that dropped a 1/4* off the match- ***1/2

Steven Regal vs Sting
Regal has tape all over him due to injuries sustained the previous week. This was a good match, with a red hot crowd for Sting, and Regal did a great job of playing the cowardly heel who wanted little to do with him. It was also good from a technical standpoint, with solid back and forth mat wrestling. Sting got the fall out of nowhere with a bridging pin. Solid, basic stuff- **1/2

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Jim Duggan
It was originally supposed to be Lex Lugar in this match, but he didn’t show up so Duggan took his place. Personally, I’d have preferred Lugar, because this was a pretty poor match, much like their previous match from a few months earlier. Duggan basically did a load of punches (as usual) and The Giant used his power and size to overpower him. The Giant won it with a Chokeslam- 3/4*

13th May 1996

Public Enemy vs The Steiners
A clash of styles here, with Public Enemy looking to brawl while The Steiners overpowered them with considerable ease. The Steiners’ strategy seemed to be the more effective as they dominated the majority of the match, and Public Enemy had some miscommunication with each other. The match was enjoyable, and went back and forth outside of The Steiners periods of dominance. The Steiners won following a Scott Steiner Frankensteiner on Rock- **1/2

Dave Taylor vs Chris Benoit
On paper, this looked a brilliant match. This match ended up being a lot like a classic World Of Sport style match, with Taylor wrestling that style to perfection, and Benoit adapting his own style to that to make a good match. So we got a mix of solid technical wrestling and hard hitting strikes. My only problem with it was that both men were heels at this time, so the crowd didn’t know who to cheer. Benoit got the victory with a Dragon Suplex. It could have been longer, but it was good while it lasted- **3/4

VK Wallstreet vs Ric Flair
Another heel vs heel match which for me confuses the crowd as to who they should cheer and boo. Strangely enough, Wallstreet worked as the face, but the crowd were more behind Flair than him. However, from a technical standpoint, the match was pretty good, with lots of solid back and forth mat wrestling. Flair would win it with a Figure 4 with assistance from Woman who provided leverage on the hold- **1/4

WCW World Title- The Giant (c) vs Lex Lugar
Since the match couldn’t happen last week, it’s happening this week instead. Lugar wasn’t able to use his power against The Giant, because he was simply too big, so had to try and knock him off his feet with strikes. The Giant on the other hand could use all of his power to toss Lugar around. The match would end up in a no contest though after The Giant gave him a Chokeslam through a table- *

Overall, once again you have two very solid shows here. The Malenko/Liger match is the one you should go out of your way to see, since it’s excellent if lacking in crispness at times. There’s a few other good matches here too, and other than the Duggan/Giant match, the lesser matches all had a purpose. Solid recommendation for these shows.

7.5/10

WCW Nitro 22-29th April 1996

WCW Nitro 22nd April 1996

American Males vs Public Enemy
A pretty big cross of styles, with the American males basic tag team formula against the brawling of Public Enemy. This was around the time that the American Males began to be turned on by the fans, with some noticeable boos for the Males and cheering for Public Enemy. In the end, a pretty solid if generic tag match was won by the American Males by DQ following a throw over the top rope, followed by putting Riggs through a table- **1/4

Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero
This is their third Nitro match against each other. Once again it was their usual brilliance, with the match going back and forth, and all of the wrestling was crisp and well executed. However, it was short, and it felt like they were holding back at times. But what we got was good for the time given. Benoit won by using the ropes for leverage on a pinning combination for three- **3/4

Jim Duggan vs Meng
As dull a match as you would expect: just a lot of punching and rest holds for the majority of the match, and I can’t say a lot more about it than that. Following numerous attempts at cheating by both men, Duggan taped his fist and hit Meng with it, didn’t get DQ’ed despite it being right in front of the ref, and got three- 3/4*

Title vs Title- Ric Flair and The Giant vs Lex Lugar and Sting
If Sting and Lugar win, whoever gets the fall gets the World Title, but if Flair’s team wins then they win the Tag Team Titles. It was in my opinion, a better match than the previous week’s one, because there was more on the line, the crowd were even more electric, and there was more Flair/Sting interaction. After isolating Sting, Flair and The Giant worked him over, but he got the hot tag to Lugar who cleaned house. Then Flair tried to throw coffee into the eyes of Sting and Lugar, but The Giant ended up getting it in the eyes. This somehow gets a DQ so nobody wins. It was going great until the finish, so as a result I’ll rate it the same as last week- **3/4

29th April 1996

Harlem Heat vs Sting and Lex Lugar
Personally, I’ve never really enjoyed matches involving these two teams, because I feel they don’t click. It was a decent match, but it was pretty formulatic, although I appreciate Booker T’s brilliant selling that made Sting and Lugar look great. I also felt the match went slightly too long, but the crowd never got bored and were hot throughout. After a double team move on Lugar by Harlem Heat, Jimmy Hart threw in the towel, but this was only a distraction as Sting rolled up Booker T for three. Bizarre finish, but solid action- **1/4

Fire and Ice vs Steiner Brothers
Going in, I thought this could be a good power tag team match. And I have to admit, the match was pretty much a battle of power against power, but done at a quick pace. It was quite a surprise to see all four men getting man handled by their opponents: something you would usually never see. It was a short match though, won by Rick Steiner via a Steiner Line on Ice Train. Really good while it lasted- **1/2

Parking Lot Brawl- Belfast Bruiser vs Steven Regal
I’ve heard good things about this match, but haven’t seen it before. And it was a wild brawl, with Regal and Bruiser just destroying each other, using cars, parts from the cars, and even bricks during the match. At one point, Regal smashes Bruiser’s head through a window. Regal wins this via a Piledriver on top of a car. Great stuff I must admit- ***

WCW World Title- Ric Flair (c) vs The Giant
A grudge match based on the problems between these two in tag matches over the past few weeks. Much like the match they had previously, The Giant simply overpowered the much smaller Ric Flair here, while Flair had to resort to blatant cheating to get anything on him, and slowly wore him down. Flair got the Figure Four, but took too long to lock it in, and The Giant played possum. The Giant got the Chokeslam and got three. Solid stuff, but short- **1/4

Overall, there’s some solid wrestling here, but other than the parking Lot Brawl, nothing that you really need to go out of your way to see. However, other than the Duggan/Meng match, there was nothing awful either. So if you haven’t got anything better to watch, then you wouldn’t go wrong with these two shows.

7/10

NWA Wildside TV 27/8/2004

Another review from my archive: I’ll have some more Nitro reviews up either tomorrow or Sunday

NWA Wildside TV 27/8/2004

I’m sure all indy fans will have heard of this promotion at some point. NWA Wildside was a small time indy promotion associated with WCW before it’s closure, and it used a mix of local talent and upcoming wrestler on the indy scene in what you could call a more old-school style wrestling show. While you would have the occasional blowaway match, the focus was more on feuds than on amazing ring action. I loved NWA Wildside, and finally managed to track down this episode, one of my all time favourite editions of Wildside TV.

Your commentators on this event are Scott Hudson and Steven Prazak (no relation of Dave). They call the action decently enough but

We start the show off with Scott and Steve recapping last week’s edition of NWA Wildside TV and what we can expect this week.

Al Getz cuts a promo with Pomp and Circumstance talking about the corporate re-structuring of his stable, Al Getz Enterprises. He talks about his team Pomp and Circumstance climbing the tag team rankings. Pomp and Circumstance then talk about them being the new guys in NWA Wildside and that they have a point to prove against The God Squad to show what they have to offer Al Getz.

Match 1
The God Squad (Gabriel and Altar Boy Luke) vs Pomp and Circumstance (Ace Rockwell and Shaun Tempers) w/Al Getz
Gabriel used to team with Azreal in a highly successful indy tag team, while you may have seen Altar Boy Luke as Luke Hawk in WSX. Pomp and Circumstance have wrestled in IWA Mid South on several occasions. This match was solid, with Gabriel and Luke wrestling a fast paced, high flying style. Pomp and Circumstance gain control as we head to a break

[Commercial Break]

When we return, Pomp and Circumstance have isolated Gabriel and are working over his leg, and put all the usual heel tactics to use with Al Getz getting involved on several occasions. Altar Boy Luke gets the hot tag and he cleans house with some quick, high impact moves. Pomp and Circumstance waste a chance to pin Gabriel, who fights back, and this leads to The God Squad getting the win with a Double Stomp-Jig N’Tonic combo. Solid TV match overall- **1/4

The God Squad cut a promo talking about their victory and how they want the NWA Wildside Tag Team Titles, and that they will face anyone who thinks they can beat them to prove themselves.

Match 2
Bio-Hazard vs ‘The Feature Presentation’ Jeff Lewis w/Al Getz
Bio-Hazard is the same wrestler who competed in Ring Of Honor, and had a match recently in IWA-MS with Roderick Strong. Lewis is an NWA Wildside regular but has not gone anywhere else. This match was fairly decent, mainly technical wrestling with Bio-Hazard using the occasional high impact move and strikes. Jeff Lewis worked over Bio-Hazard’s back for the majority of this short match, and cheated at every opportunity. We head to a commercial break again

[Commercial Break]

We return with Lewis still in control, but not for long as Bio-Hazard fights back. But he is quickly attacked by the Urban Assault Squad (Shadow and Nemesis) causing the DQ. Decent enough match while it lasted- **

The Urban Assault Squad beatdown Bio-Hazard, who they are feuding with after he helped fellow wrestler Silo Storm in a tag match. Silo Storm heads to the ring for the save but they beat him down too. They then hang Silo Storm over the top rope as the referee’s try to save him, and they then celebrate it. This was a good segment to put over this feud.

The Urban Assault Squad cut a promo, saying that Silo Storm has lost five times to them but keeps coming back, and he then wittily calls Biohazard ‘Bi-Sexual’ and cracks up at it. He then tells them both to stay down.

Match 3
No DQ, Street Fight- Jay Fury and ‘Nitro’ Nick Halen vs Alabama Attitude
This is the same Jay Fury who wrestled in FIP and ROH. It was matches like this that got him noticed: an excellent match to end this feud. Alabama Attitude were a team that I was never that big a fan of, but the beating they took in this match gave me a lot of respect for them, as they took shot after shot with weapons for the whole match and kept coming back. Nick Halen at one point smashed a chair HARD over one of the Alabama Attitude members. Spot of the match had to be when Alabama Attitude setup a Double run with the ladder into Jay Fury, but Jay Fury Jaytrixes under the ladder, backflips off the top rope over them, then Nick Halen Dropkicks the ladder in their faces, and the crowd goes crazy. They then win the match on one of the Alabama Attitude members with a Double Hip Toss through a table onto his partner. Fantastic, innovative match and absolutely must see for Wildside fans. And it wasn’t even the best match of the night- ***1/2

Jeremy V talks about how he has had Jason Cross where he wanted him time and time again but there was always interference that stopped him from winning the belt. However he says that tonight is his final opportunity and he promises he will come away with the belt.

Match 4
NWA Television Title Match- ‘The Role Model’ Jason Cross (c) w/Jeff G Bailey vs Jeremy V
Going into this match, these two had been feuding over the belt with Cross getting cheap victories, and this is the payoff for Jeremy V. Think of Jeremy V as a more technical, ground based version of Matt Sydal with long hair, and I’m sure you’ll be familiar with Jason Cross from his TNA appearances. This match was simply amazing, one of the best in Wildside history, that told a great story. Jeremy V threw everything he could at Jason Cross, and Cross took everything and made Jeremy V look like Superman. At the same time Cross at times just brutalised Jeremy V with high impact offense, working on Jeremy V’s neck which is weak due to injuries suffered their in the past, but he refused to stay down and fought back again and again, getting the crowd more and more into it, thinking a title change could happen. After Jason Cross hat his finisher, the Best Damn Brainbuster In North America, Jeremy V kicked out, then Jeremy V hat the VDT and almost got three. Jeff G Bailey interfered but got nailed by Jeremy V, then Cross got a rollup with the trunks, but Jeremy V still kicked out. Jeremy V then fought back, and hat the VKO and VDT combo, and finally got three as the crowd goes crazy. It wasn’t the most flashy match that you’ll ever see, but in terms of entertainment it was brilliant. A must see match- ****

Jeremy V then celebrates with the belt as we go off the air