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WCW Monday Nitro

Live from Chicago Rosemont, IL

Airdate: October 9, 1995

Attendance: 8,500 (4,458 paid)

Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, and Steve “Mongo” McMichael

We begin with footage from last week of Hulk Hogan being ambushed by the Giant and Taskmaster.

Opening montage.

The announce team is wearing Chicago Bears’ jerseys with their names on the back. Heenan informs us of a restraining order placed against the Giant. Suddenly Sting interrupts everything stating he will resolve the issues between “The Total Package” Lex Luger and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

Match 1 for the US Title: Sting (champion) versus Shark

Highlights:

Rating: **

Summary: Quick match to maintain Sting as a dominant face in WCW.

We see the end of Hogan’s interview and subsequent beating by the Giant and Taskmaster. Seriously couldn’t they have extended the opening match by a couple of minutes?

WCW Halloween Havoc only on PPV October 29.

Match 2: Sabu versus Mr. JL

Highlights:

Rating: ***1/2

Summary: Great match. Both guys brought the hot sauce to the chips.

After the match Sabu tosses Mr. JL outside the ring. When Mr. JL gets on the apron Sabu delivers a sunset flip from inside the ring to the floor. OUCH!

In the ring “Mean” Gene Okerlund interviews Sting and Lex Luger. Sting calls out Savage. Upon hitting the ring Savage wants a piece of Luger. Sting calls Savage paranoid. Sting notifies us that at Halloween Havoc Luger will face Meng while Savage will face Kamala. His proposal: If both guys win they should face one another. Luger objects. Sting calls him disgusting and is tired of “being a babysitter.” Finally Luger acquiesces.

A limo pulls up outside the arena (but which one?), and Chris Benoit steps out. With wrestlers such as Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Sabu, and Chris Benoit that “mid-card problem” I mentioned about WCW during the summer months of 1995 has been corrected. Woohoo!

Disco Inferno’s music plays, and he dances at the entrance just like last week. After his music stops Big Bubba walks by him basically ignoring him. However, Road Warrior Hawk emerges and intimidates Disco Inferno. Unbeknownst to Hawk Disco Inferno placed a WCW hat on one of the spikes of Hawk’s ring attire. HA!

Match 3: Road Warrior Hawk versus Big Bubba Rogers

Highlights:

Rating: DUD

Summary: This match was only an angle for Hawk to beat the bejeezus out of Disco Inferno.

In the ring Gene interviews Hogan. A smattering of boos can be overheard from the Chicago faithful. Sans mustache Hogan makes his way to the ring wearing all black. He of course makes me lose my lunch when he refers to the Giant as “Andre’s son.” Hogan indirectly refers to Vince McMahon in a negative fashion.

Sirens can be overheard as the Giant, Taskmaster, and Zodiac make their way in a monster truck to the arena followed by police cars. Hogan heads toward the back to confront them.

Eric promotes Halloween Havoc noting that Hogan will defend the WCW title against the Giant as well as battle him in a sumo match with monster trucks.

Fireworks explode as the ring lowers for the main event cage match.

Another promo for Halloween Havoc.

Rosemont police inform Eric that they are keeping Hogan and Giant apart from one another. Either that or they towed away his Lexus because it was parked improperly.

Match 4 (Steel cage): “Nature Boy” Ric Flair versus “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson

Highlights:

Rating: ***

Summary: While a steel cage usually signals the end of a feud I don’t believe this one’s over.

After the match Flair made his way to the broadcast position, stole (and broke) Eric’s headset, and challenged both Anderson and Pillman to a match next week.

Speaking of next week DDP will defend the TV title against Johnny B. Badd. Also, Chris Benoit makes his WCW debut against Eddie Guerrero. Also, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan will face Meng. Top it all off with the Flair-Anderson-Pillman stuff and that’s an action-packed hour!

Conclusion: As expected with a hot Chicago crowd this was an exciting episode. The only unremarkable portion of the program was the Hawk-Disco Inferno crap that belongs on WCW Saturday Night. I wonder how this hot show compared to the taped RAW. Let’s find out.

TV Rating: 2.60

WWF Monday Night RAW

Taped from Grand Rapids, MI

Airdate: October 9, 1995 (taped 9/25)

Attendance: 1,500

Hosted by Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler

Opening montage.

Prior to the opening match we see a video where Shawn Michaels attended the Survivor Series press conference in Washington, DC Landover, MD. He stood amongst some children celebrating 98% attendance. Shawn comes across as extremely moved and humble in this video. It’s definitely a side of Shawn you didn’t see often prior to his comeback in 2002.

Match 1: Owen Hart, Yokozuna, and the “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith (w/ Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) versus Diesel, Shawn Michaels, and the Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer)

Highlights:

Rating: ****

Summary: When you throw almost the entire upper echelon of the roster into one match good things are bound to happen.

After the match Undertaker cleans house until Mabel attacks him from behind. Mabel then gives Yokozuna an Irish whip into Undertaker for an avalanche. Mabel doubles the Undertaker’s pleasure with one of his own. Yokozuna adds a leg drop then Mabel adds one to the mix as well. Douglas grabs Michaels and beats him up. As Yokozuna and Mabel demolish the Undertaker with a leg drop and splash respectively.

Douglas suplexes Michaels onto the steel steps. OUCH! Did you feel the Earth shake? That was Mabel delivering another splash to the Undertaker. A group of referees break up the fracas. After a commercial break we get a glimpse of the Undertaker’s eye as his eye socket was actually fractured. YEE-OUCH!

We see highlights from last week of the match between Jean-Pierre LaFitte and Bret “Hitman” Hart followed by the shenanigans by Lawler and subsequently Isaac Yankem.

Next week Bret will face Yankem in a steel cage in what will be the FINAL match of this taping. Whew!

Back at Summerslam we see highlights of the Yankem/Bret match joined in progress. At some point in the future I will review this show rather than just this match. This ate up a lot of air time.

This week RAW is brought to you by TYCO.

Video of the WWF benefit from this past Friday at Madison Square Garden is shown.

World Tour de Force promo as the WWF invades the Northeast like it’s still 1984.

Match 2: Bodydonna Skip (w/ Sunny) versus Fatu

Highlights:

Rating: **

Summary: While both of these guys had better matches in the future the only true highlight of this match was Sunny.

We review what occurred in the six-man tag match earlier. Back in the locker room Dok Hendrix informs us that none of the faces are in any condition to be interviewed. Meanwhile Jim Ross interviews Jim Cornette and Bulldog who wearing a cap. Cornette basically tells us that Bulldog will defeat Diesel at the PPV. In an attempt to milk every jeer possible at the PPV Bulldog refers to Winnipeg as a “hell hole.” Mabel refers to Bulldog as his homie and cuts a promo on the Undertaker.

Vince and Lawler advertise next week’s main event in the cage. If Lawler interferes then he gets put in a shark cage. Whew! The show’s finally over.

Conclusion: Great opening match and a whole lot of nothing else. With the Bret/Yankem match sandwiched in the middle of the show it gave those who had already seen the match an opportunity to watch Nitro. Also the last match gave practically everyone a legitimate reason to watch the cage match on Nitro. So what’s the verdict?

TV Rating: 2.60

Who won? Kiss your sister again, ‘cuz it’s another tie! Combine the great six-man tag match with all the happenings on Nitro and you get an extremely happy wrestling audience who couldn’t favor one show over the other. While the pacing of Nitro was fast it was more enjoyable than a show that was basically one match and filler.

See you for week 6 of the Monday Night War!

Comments? Suggestions? Send them to me at rsg@rockstargary.com and follow me on Twitter (@rockstargary202).

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