Monday, January 8th, 1996
North Charleston Coliseum
Charleston, South Carolina
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Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael welcome us as always. They hype up the big main event of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. Heenan says wherever you see two Horsemen, you see Four Horsemen. This leads to Pillman and Benoit on the way to the ring.
Chris Benoit vs. Alex Wright
My biggest complaint with these early weeks of Nitro has been the lack of total superstars that have been featured. Wright has only been on a few times, so it's good to see him on here. Benoit attacks him on his way into the ring and is showing more aggression than we have seen in this run here. They mention how Pillman has been walking the line of being suspended for some of his off the wall antics and he gets in a cheap shot on Wright. Wright comes back with a slingshot that sends Benoit to the floor. He hits a baseball slide that sends Benoit into the guardrail and then a top rope crossbody to the floor. He turns his attention to Pillman before going back into the ring. Wright puts on a Boston Crab and then a STF. Wright feels like he is just sort of doing moves here as he hits a suplex. Wright goes after Pillman again and this time gets a shot in. Benoit gets his knees up when Wright tries to splash him. We get some back and forth in counters before Benoit hits him in the face with a right hand. Benoit hits a German suplex into a bridge and gets the victory. This wasn't bad action but like I mentioned, it kind of just felt like Wright was doing moves just to do them.
Match Rating: **
Lord Steven Regal vs. Eddie Guererro
The amount of jabs they have taken at WWF so far this week is already exhausting me. They keep talking about how much action they are giving you for free as if they don't run as many pay-per-views or something. Credit to Heenan for not really joining in on the annoyance. Regal does his usual mat wrestling to start off until Guerrero explodes for a hurricanrana. Regal is starting to get angry and is increasing the intensity behind his blows. Regal continues to control the match until Guerrero sneaks in a backslide and steals the victory. Regal is livid and keeps attacking Guerrero to the point where the announcers aren't even sure if he won. This was pretty good but a little on the dull side.
Match Rating: *1/2
We go to Mean Gene with Lex Luger and Sting but not before he makes fun of the New Generation. I guess the Huckster stuff did get under their skin. I don't get why because that was awful too. They tease the drama behind their friendship and it leads to them agreeing to be a tag team. This was lame.
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting
Finally, we are getting some DDP on this show. Classic WCW with having Sting out for the interview and then having him come out right after for a match. Drives me nuts. Sting is destroying DDP as the announce team keeps telling us how much better DDP is than he used to be. We get what looks to be a miscue when Sting leapfrogs DDP but doesn't get all the way over. DDP goes to a rest hold already and just slows this thing down all the way. Sting makes his comeback but when he goes for the Scorpion Death Lock, DDP is too close to the ropes. DDP takes advantage briefly before Sting locks it on again and picks up the win. Sting continues to be over but this one wasn't that great.
Match Rating: 3/4*
They continue to hype up Clash Of The Champions and how it is free. Again, this company runs a ton of pay per views. We aren't stupid.
Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage
It looks like these four are going to get some time to have a match. It gets harder for me to focus on anything Hogan does at this point. He is insufferable. We finally get Savage in and he slams Flair off the top rope. Savage puts on the Figure Four and then Hogan comes in and puts it on Anderson. This leads to Anderson hitting a DDT on Savage because Hogan is an idiot. Flair throws Savage over the top rope behind the referee's back. Later on, they throw Savage into the guardrail. Hogan gets the hot tag but Arn hits a spinebuster. Hogan no sells it and hits the big boot/leg drop combo for the victory. Out comes the Dungeon of Doom and Giant hits a chokeslam on Hogan while Kevin Sullivan and Pillman brawl. Were they supposed to stop the finish of the match? I really wasn't into this main event and the action was mostly vanilla.
Match Rating: *
This one felt like it should have been better than it was. There was a lot of wrestling action, which I appreciated. The announcers were unbearable this week and the storylines didn't really advance that much this week. I'd put this one somewhere in the middle.
Overall Rating: 49%
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