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WCW Monday Nitro 4/5/99
Sting returns tonight! And to start the show, we get one of the hype videos for Starrcade 1997. Due to Hogan and DDP tearing up the set last week, we've got a new stage, logo, and intro music.
TO THE BACK. Goldberg is walking around with a roller cage.
This stage is like a god damn space ship. And now, the announcers are at ringside and we only have 2 of them.
TO THE MEAN GENE. Gene brings out Goldberg and his tumbler. We're 6 days away from Spring Stampede. Goldberg has no match. The first name he pulls out of the hopper will be NEXT. Before he gets the chance, Kevin Nash comes out. Dat's my big homie! Nash is wearing a hockey jersey as mind games. 10 years from now, people won't be talking about Goldberg, they'll be talking about Kevin Nash. That was true, but not for good reasons. Nash vs Goldberg at Spring Stampede! "The way I see that? Merry Christmas, Goldberg." Lol. Goldberg, you so silly. It's April and you're Jewish.
TO THE OVAL OFFICE. Flair sees something on a monitor and sends Arn to take care of it.
Riki comes out to hype the hotline. He fucks up the Canadian number.
Hak vs Kendal Windham Kendo Stick Match
YO! Tony gets a boner over Chastity's school girl look. Not really sure what the rules are or why they're having a gimmick match in their first match ever. Kendal literally tries to sodomize Sandman with a stick. Sandman didn't like it. Monkey flip! Chastity has both canes now. So it's back to just a normal match. Tony is really, really into Chastity's outfit. Kendal leg drops Sandman as he was getting back in the ring. Windham lariatoo. Sandman plants Ken with a DDT. Cane shot to the head. White Russian leg sweep for the put away. YO!
TO THE OVAL OFFICE. Goldberg busts in the office. Flair said he didn't call for him. But Lex and Liz were in there. We go to break and Arn tells Nash that Flair wants him.
Konnan/Disco hype video.
Konnan vs Lizmark Jr.
Lol, Tony goes on a rant about how he's the only one of the announcers that actually puts any effort into the shows and office work. It was in response to Bobby saying he was up until 6 in the morning. He had an Easter egg hunt. Also, fuck Konnan.
TO THE OVAL OFFICE. Nash comes in and they go straight to commercial.
Scott Steiner hype video.
TO THE BACK. Flair and Nash walked out and seemed to be in a good mood. Nash comes across Hogan, who doesn't like that Nash and Flair were getting along so well. Nash was then found talking to Charles Robinson. Hogan also came across this conversation and wasn't happy. Hogan wants to know why Nash hasn't been returning calls. SWERVE was mentioned a few times. Nash is just tired.
TO THE MEAN BY GOD GENE. Flair likes that Goldberg and Nash set up their own match. He likes it so much that he's going to wrestle Hogan for the title tonight! Hogan comes running out in his wrestling gear. If Hogan touches Flair before the match, the match is off. This brings DDP out. He wants a 3 way dance. Hulk wants it to be a handicap match. Now Goldberg comes out. Arn is in the back watching. He wants in the match. Flair tells him no, so Goldberg throws him down. It's on! Four way dance for the title tonight! Goldberg and Hogan have a stare down in the aisle and seemed to make a deal to get rid of DDP and Flair so they can face each other one on one.
Scott Steiner vs Meng
Semi final match. He wants to know why DDP didn't join the US Tag Tournament for the US Championship so they could meet in the finals. He rambles about Kim and hootchies and says he only needs one night to show Kim why he's a "phenombenom". If DDP ever wants revenge, he'll have to put Kim on the line for one night. He ain't got time for 30 days. Meng knocks the shit out of Scotty. Scott finally comes back with the spinning belly to belly and throws Meng to the floor. Meng comes back after blocking a top rope frankensteiner. Dropkick from Meng! Blatant low blow right in front of the ref. Steiner then does a belly to belly and pins Meng with his feet on the ropes. He moves on to the finals.
We've spotted Sting in the rafters! Wait, it's just one of the stage hands who happens to be wearing a leather duster. SWERVE!
TO THE OVAL OFFICE. Flair is on the phone talking about spending WCW money. He notices the camera man and wants to know what he's doing in there. He threatens to fire the guy if he doesn't turn the camera off.
I wish there was an archive of WCW Live.
A video package dedicated to Jim Duggan and his struggles with cancer is aired.
Jim Duggan vs Lenny Lane
HOOOOOOOOOOOO, tough guy! Hacksaw wins in his come back.
Riki again plugs the hotline. Fuck you, Riki.
nWo B Team Battle Royal
Winner gets to be the one true leader of the B Team. There are only four people. Can you really have a battle royal with four people? Stevie came out in a leather fedora. The last battle royal WCW had featured 60 men. This one has four, all heels, that no one cares about. This is awful. I think it is going longer than WW3 was. Stevie Ray wins! He's the official leader of the B Team!
TO THE BACK. DDP is doing yoga.
Recap of Rey/Kidman winning the tag titles last week.
Raven/Saturn vs Kidman/Rey Mysterio Jr. WCW Tag Team Championships
Saturn and Rey start out. Saturn unloads some elbows. Rey tries a victory roll on Raven, but Raven held him in place for a cross body doomsday device. Guillotine ass drop. Saturn misses the second one. Sitout pedigree. Double Superfly Splash from the cruisers. We go to break. Saturn is in control of Kidman when we come back. Gnarly belly to belly to the floor. Chair drop toe hold. Gourdbuster from Raven is followed by a Superfly Splash from Saturn. YOU CAN'T POWERBOMB KIDMAN! Has Raven ever powerbombed someone in his career? Rey gets the hot tag. Saturn gets the bronco buster. Raven counters it with a boot to the dick. Raven pops Rey over him into Saturn, who went into the ref. Saturn catches a springboard and nails the DVD. Dean runs out and does a suplex. Benoit does the diving headbutt. They put Rey on top of Saturn. The ref wakes up to count the fall. Champions retain. That's stupid. They should have cost Rey/Kidman the match, because then the tag match at Spring Stampede would be a title match.
TO THE BACK. Hogan is doing Hindu squats with horrendous form.
Booker T. vs Chris Jericho
Tournament match. Jericho takes a weird bump on a drop kick. Nick Patrick is back for the first time in months and has a pony tail. That and his mustache do not make for a good look. Triangle dropkick. Knees are up for the Lionsault. Ax kick. Spinewalkslambuster. Flapjack Norton from Jericho. Book no sells it to do a spinarooni. Steiner comes out with a chair. Book kicks it back into his face. He then back drops Jericho on top of Steiner. THEN the match is thrown out. Not when Steiner came in with a chair, but when Jericho got back dropped on Steiner. Booker wins. Booker vs Steiner in the finals at Spring Stampede. What was the point of having Jericho reenter the tournament just to lose again?
Buff Bagwell vs Bam Bam Big Yellow
Buff laughs at BAGalow's hefty size. I wonder why Nash or Hogan haven't had anything to stay about Buff being kicked out of the nWo. Bam Bam gets knocked to the floor. Bam Bam randomly decides to try a swanton bomb. Ref bump. Buff gets knocked to the floor. Sandman comes out. Cane shot and fire extinguisher. Blockbluser for the win. The ref doesn't find it odd that there is a huge cloud in the ring?
Lol, they already have a Nash/Goldberg promo package for Spring Stampede, even though the match was announced tonight.
Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair vs DDP vs Goldberg WCW Championship
The champion and president comes out first. Bobby was clearly told to shut the fuck up when he brought up how it made no sense that Flair would book himself in a match like this both as champion and president. He stopped mid sentence. DDP and Goldberg lock up and go to the floor. Hogan and Flair do old man brawling. Hulk is Hulking up 45 seconds in. Big boot. Camera missed the leg drop. DDP broke the pin. Now Goldberg and Flair are on the floor. Flair gets thrown back in the ring. And now Hogan and Goldberg are on the floor. Flair takes a scary bump from the top rope press slam. Nash is on color, but doesn't really say much. Ax Bombbaa to Goldberg. Goldberg powerslams Ric. There is no order to this at all. Just guys randomly pairing off. Flair grabs a chair. DDP caught up to him before he could use it. Camera is missing a lot of stuff because they aren't doing split screen. They're just cutting back and forth between the ring and the floor. Now they're all on the floor near the announce table. WE WANT STING chants ring out. Hogan and Flair fought on the table for a bit. We miss Flair getting suplexed on the floor so we could see Goldberg blocking getting rammed into the turnbuckle. Goldberg no sells the 80th Ax Bombba, but DDP's lariatoo puts him down. Jackhammer to Page. Hogan breaks the pin. Spear to Page. Spear to Flair. Spear to Hogan. SPEARS. EVERYWHERE. Jackhammer on Hogan. Hogan kicks out because Nash couldn't get in the ring quick enough. The match is thrown out and STING drops down from the ceiling. He points at all the monitors. What airs is a promo with Randy Savage doing the voice over. Macho says that DDP vs Flair vs Sting vs Hogan will happen at Spring Stampede and Savage will be the referee. OH YEAHHH WE'RE OUTTA TIME!
DQ Count: 2 out of 9 matches
So, let me get this straight. Flair books himself in a 4 corners match for his title. Then Randy Savage books a second 4 corners match at Spring Stampede. So why did they run a 4 corners match with 3 of the competitors 6 days before the PPV? Nash and Goldberg set up their big rematch 6 days before a PPV. That should be a huge deal and it was a throw away match with no build on the real go home show. Not only that, Nash actually (attempted to) broke up the pin that Goldberg had, which would have made their match a title match. The Horsemen did a similar thing by costing Raven/Saturn to lose when they could have made them win and had a title match at the PPV.
Ric Flair seems to now be buddy buddy with Kevin Nash. This is despite Nash being the one who convinced David to turn on him, as shown on the various promos with Torrie over the past 2 months. Sting is back to being a mute. That thing with Arn 2 weeks ago on Thunder still hasn't been mentioned. Scott Hall's absence still hasn't been mentioned. Roddy Piper's absence hasn't been mentioned. Nothing with Bret Hart and Goldberg was mentioned besides Nash making some jokes about it. Buff and Steiner didn't mention each other at all. Steiner mentioned DDP, but DDP didn't bring up Steiner and instead is focused on a title shot. He said last week that he came back specifically just for Steiner. Book is the TV Champ, but wrestling for the US Championship at the PPV. Rey and Kidman are tag champs, but will face each other for the Cruiserweight Championship at the PPV.
1)Who is that?
2)What was the deal with Macho Man, when was he written out of the storylines and when did he return between 98 and 99?
He was written out in the Spring of 1998 to have knee surgery on a knee that had been destroyed since sometime in 1997. He made a one off appearance on the last Nitro of 1998 to help Flair defeat Bischoff. He's now making his return at Spring Stampede, which I'm about to come to after this next Thunder.