Monday, December 11th, 1995
Independence Arena
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Eddie Guerrero vs. Mr. JL
The announcers are talking and all of a sudden, the bell rings and this match is underway. JL props Eddie in the corner and hits a springboard dropkick and that sends Eddie to the floor. JL then hits a running somersault dive off the apron before throwing Eddie back in the ring. We then get an awkward finish where JL reverses a roll and then kind of looks like he just does Eddie's reversal for him and that's it? I mean, I'll take these two every week but this one was not their best.
Match Rating: *1/4
Mean Gene is with Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart. Luger says that he and Sting have been talking and that they know it will come down to the two of them at Starrcade.
Disco Inferno vs. Paul Orndorff
This is a choice. Disco attacks Orndorff and the bell rings. Orndorff regains control and does about the dorkiest mockery of Disco's dancing that you could ever imagine. Orndorff gets the easy victory after a version of the German suplex. This just felt like such an odd pairing.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Mean Gene is now with the Four Horsemen minus Chris Benoit. Orndorff comes out and interrupts and has an issue with Pillman. He tells him that he's just carrying the Horsemen's bags around. Pillman slaps him and they start brawling. Obviously, the Horsemen win the battle here and they hit a spike piledriver onto the concrete. Was this Orndorff's last night?
When we come back commercial, they show the medical team putting Orndorff on a stretcher with Heenan watching over them.
Lex Luger vs. Jim Duggan
You don't see too many Duggan squashes at this point in time, but Luger basically does that here. Duggan got in his moment of offense, but Luger gets him up in the Torture Rack for the easy win.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Randy Savage is now with Mean Gene. He talks about facing the Giant next week on Nitro and how Andre the Giant is the only other wrestler who was as powerful as Giant.
Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Sting & Hulk Hogan
The crowd is alive for this one and we get a "Hogan sucks" chant. All of this is just making it look like less and less genius that they turned Hogan heel and more and more like it was the only choice to keep his career going. I also am surprised at how good Sting looked during this time before he turns into the much weaker character soon in my opinion. Obviously, he had to evolve past the surfer dude type character, but I don't think the Crow character needed to last until he retired. Sting puts on the Scorpion Death Lock, but Flair interrupts. It leads to Sting getting a DDT from Anderson. Luger and Hart are back out and Hogan doesn't like it. Luger puts Hogan up in the Torture Rack and the crowd loves that. Sting didn't see any of it. Flair is working on the knee of Sting. Hogan has crawled back up to the apron. Sting survives a Figure Four and some shenanigans and he makes a comeback. He slams Arn's face into the mat and he makes the tag to Hogan. Arn hits Hogan with a spinebuster and of course Hogan stands right up. Hogan hits the big boot to both opponents and the leg drop to Arn for the win. Lots of boos there for that finish. Out comes Pillman and he attacks Sting. Luger and Hart run out again and this time Luger pulls Pillman off of Sting. Sting tries to help Hogan but Luger doesn't care. Out comes Savage and Sting hits him. Hogan gets in the middle of them and Mean Gene weasels his way into the ring. Then the "Hogan sucks" chants start again. Hogan's acting here is just so terrible. I have probably written this a thousand times but I will never understand why anyone ever liked Hogan. Hogan reminds Savage that he may not even be the champion after facing the Giant next week. Savage tells the crew to stick together and we go to commercial break. This match was fun with a hot crowd and a lame finish.
Match Rating: **3/4
The announce team hypes up the title match next week.
Well, Nitro continues to put on the better shows here for the most part. Raw aired one their worst episodes of the year and this was mostly enjoyable stuff. I could live without a Mean Gene interview in between every segment but that's no fault of Gene. The wrestlers just rarely seem to have anything interesting to say.
Overall Rating: 59%
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