Sunday, November 26th, 1995
Norfolk Scope
Norfolk, Virginia
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Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan give their predictions for the battle royal tonight and then mention the other random matches that were never really advertised at all ahead of this show. We go to Mean Gene and he is with Sting, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. Hogan says that the dark side is over and he rips off his black shirt and Sting lights it on fire. He wants to be Sting's friend forever. Savage then apologizes to Sting and calls him the coolest dude in the world. Hogan then says that Savage's arm injury was just a plan. He then makes fun of the Observer and lights it on fire. This is about as bad of a way as you could start a show as humanly possible.
They then show Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly from Saturday Night and she isn't happy.
WCW Television Championship Match
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd
I'm trying to remember if DDP has even been on Nitro yet. It's kind of interesting to see that Badd will be debuting in WWF in about 4 months. After not really promoting the undercard of this show, I will be interested to see if they improve that for Starrcade. The first big spot of the match is Badd hitting a dive over the top. Page then uses Kimberly to block Badd's follow up offense and then capitalizes on by throwing Badd into the guardrail. This has been a good match so far. These two had good chemistry together. Badd makes his comeback and hits an inverted atomic drop. Kimberly gives Badd a 10+ sign. Badd hits a sit-down powerbomb, but Page kicks out. Badd runs into an elbow and Page goes for the pin with his legs on the ropes, but Badd kicks out. Badd hits a spinning headscissors and then goes for the Bad Mood, but DDP gets his knees up. Badd reverses a piledriver and hits one of his own for another 2 count. Badd hits the somersault dive to the outside and throws Page back in the ring. Badd hits a slingshot leg drop into the ring and picks up the victory. That was a little abrupt in terms of a finish, but the match was very good. They crammed a lot of good action in there. After the match, Badd and Kimberly hug.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Mean Gene is hyping up an update on the WWF steroid scandal on the WCW Hotline. He then meets with Badd and Kimberly. Badd offers for Kimberly to be his manager but doesn't want an answer tonight. He wants her to think about her hopes and dreams.
Taped Fist Match
Big Bubba Rogers vs. Jim Duggan
Duggan attacks Bubba during his entrance and this one just feels more like 1994 WCW to me. They take advantage of the multiple rings as Duggan shoves Bubba's head between two ring posts. Bubba dominates for a little bit and does a lame bit where he tapes Duggan's arm to the top rope. Duggan comes back until VK Wall Street comes down to make this all feel so distinctly WCW. Duggan hits Wall Street with the 2x4. The distraction allows for Bubba to hit a huge uppercut with a chain and Duggan doesn't get up before the count of 10 and gets the win. They could have just done this on TV.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Ric Flair is with Mean Gene and he does his usual promo and says that he'll be the WCW Champion because he has Hogan, Sting and Savage where he wants him.
Mayumi Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
No complaints about seeing Bull in the ring again. Similarly to the Survivor Series match, they are working at a frantic pace to cram as much as they can. We get a double half crab by Ozaki and Suzuki. Suzuki accidentally dropkicks Ozaki off the apron when Bull moves and then Bull misses a moonsault. Ozaki and Suzuki both hit top rope double stomps. Bull comes back with a double suplex but Hokuto misses off the top. Bull breaks up the double superplex attempt. Hokuto hits a double dropkick off the top rope. Hokuto then hits a somersault dive off the top rope. They hit a Doomsday Device but the pin attempt gets broken up. Bull hits the guillotine leg drop for the victory. This was a good match with solid action from bell to bell.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Call the hotline! Only $1.49 per minute. Mean Gene now brings over Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart. Luger yells more than usual and says he'll be the new WCW Champion.
United States Championship Match
Chris Benoit vs. Kensuke Sasaki
This one starts off at a crawl and it stays there for some time. Benoit hits a top rope headbutt but it's not enough to end this snoozefest. This is honestly just an absolute bore. Kensuke hits a chokeslam and then locks in a submission hold, but Benoit grabs the ropes. Benoit hits a clothesline, but Sasake no sells it and hits one of his own. He hits a brainbuster and retains his title that no one cares about. That sucked.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Mean Gene is now with Kevin Sullivan, Giant and Jimmy Hart (again). Mean Gene has no problem bringing up Giant's "dad" and how disappointed he'd be in his "son". The Giant says "Roses are read, violets are blue, I'm going to kick your butt to Kalamazoo". No, I am not kidding.
Starrcade is coming to you...on a Wednesday night? Makes sense.
We get a video package for Savage/Luger and now Savage is with Mean Gene and he reminds us that being jittery is part of his charm.
Randy Savage vs. Lex Luger
We get the usual fun frenzy from Savage at the beginning and he then puts Luger in a Boston crab before Luger grabs the ropes. Now we're at the point where they are hyping up Nitro instead of talking about this match. Outside the ring, Luger puts the Torture Rack on Savage. He drops Savage down and he rolls back in the ring. Luger doesn't take the cheap victory though and throws Savage in the ring. Luger cranks on Savage's arm and Savage is knocked out, so the ref calls for the bell. Sting then runs out and convinces Luger to let go, making Jimmy a little disappointed he didn't break his arm. Sting then checks on his pal. This wasn't much of a match.
Match Rating: *1/4
Ric Flair vs. Sting
These are the kind of decisions that drive me nuts by WCW. They just booked Sting to come out right before this match at the end of the Savage match. Then they have him go back and come out again for this match. Now this is the match we've been needing here tonight. The crow is big time into this one and Flair is doing a lot of his fun antics. Now Col. Parker and Sister Sheri are out. Sting clotheslines Flair over the top but then misses with a Stinger Splash and lands on the guardrail. Back in the ring, Flair hits Sting below the belt. Flair keeps working and then slaps on the Figure Four. Flair slaps Sting and that gives Sting the motivation to reverse the hold. Flair gets a 2 count and argues with referee Nick Patrick, who then shoves Flair to the ground. The best part of this match is how they keep switching rings. Sting hits the press slam and some clotheslines, but Flair hits a thumb to the eye. Flair goes up top and it ends the way you think it would. Sting slaps on the Scorpion Death Lock and picks up the victory. This was a fun match.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Oh, good. More Hulk Hogan. And more Fee-fi-fo-fum talk. The fact that so many people love this clown explains a lot.
We find out we are also joined by Eric Bischoff and Dusty Rhodes at a separate announce table. Chris Cruise and Larry Zbysko are also covering a ring here. Pulling out all the stops for a match where most of the time it's a bunch of guys doing rest holds.
World War 3 Battle Royal For The WCW Championship
Each guy gets his name announced on the way to the ring. We get Michael Buffer and pyro and then it's chaos to start. At least they knew to do that. We get a split screen with all three rings being shown and them moving around the announce teams. This is not a great presentation. We'll see how long they can keep up this pace. "The stunner is that the Yeti has already been eliminated" is something that was actually said here. This is really hard to get invested in. Eric and Dusty sign off because their ring is empty. They stick with the 3 camera angles though. We are finally all in one ring and we can actually enjoy this. I guess I'm not sure "enjoy" is the right word. The final guys are all the ones you would expect and One Man Gang. Flair and Arn get eliminated one after another which is a little surprising. Luger and Sting are trying to get the Giant out and then Hogan comes and eliminates all three of them. Sure. Hogan goes under the ropes and they announce Savage as the new WCW Champion. Hogan gets back in and tells them that he went under the ropes. Typical unlikeable Hogan here. What a stupid controversy that they're trying to build up here. Mean Gene is in the ring now and Hogan is whining. Savage says it is what it is and then Hogan surveys the crowd. Savage wants to see the film and of course we have to see it on Nitro. What a scam. This was a really stupid match.
Match Rating: 3/4*
There were two very good matches, 3 bad matches and the rest was solid. The main thing about this show is that none of it felt important. Even the new champion being crowned felt like just another scam. This definitely not a bad show, but it lacked a main event to make you ever want to watch it again.
Overall Rating: 58%
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