Monday, January 22nd, 1996
Caesar's Palace
Las Vegas, Nevada
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22
We are welcomed by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael welcoming us as usual here. Randy Savage will take on Ric Flair tonight. Konnan walks up to the booth and introduces himself and says that he will be destroying Psychosis tomorrow night.
WCW Championship Match
Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair
Savage is led to the ring by a bunch of women including Woman. Another looks to be Debra McMichael. Hulk Hogan comes out because of course he does. Since he and Savage are best friends, he wishes him good luck. Flair is out with Jimmy Hart. They start brawling outside the ring to start the match and Flair throws Savage into the guardrail. Back in the ring, Savage hits a clothesline and a 2 count. They go outside again and once again Flair throws Savage into the guardrail. Savage hits a back body drop on the mat outside the ring and Savage misses with a double ax handle off the top rope into the guardrail right as we go to commercial. When we come back they are once again slamming each other into the guardrail. I don't think I have ever typed that word more in a one match review than I have in this one. Bischoff says that Miss Elizabeth will be with Hogan and Savage tomorrow night. The Road Warriors and Kevin Greene are also going to be here tomorrow. Meanwhile, Flair has the Figure Four in the middle of the ring and starts using the ropes for leverage. Savage is out and makes his comeback. Jimmy Hart is on the apron and distracts Savage. Out comes Arn Anderson and he accidentally hits Flair in the face with the brass knuckles in front of the referee. The bell rings as if it is a disqualification but Savage hits the top rope elbow drop and the referee counts 3 and awards Savage the championship. Typical WCW. Oh and of course Hogan is out here too. Savage says to stop the music and Mean Gene is in the ring. Savage says that Hogan is celebrating like he won the match but Savage is the one who won. He tells Hogan not to embarrass himself like that. Hogan says that he won with a little help from his best friend which is debatable. Savage says that he's not Nick Bockwinkle and doesn't name #1 contenders but when it's his turn, he'll take him on and hopefully in Las Vegas. Hogan says he'll do what he has to do to become the #1 contender. Savage says he would shake Hogan's hand if he won but if he wins, which is probably going to happen, he wants Hogan to shake his hand too. The match itself was pretty cookie cutter but you got the rare world title switch on free TV, so that counts for something.
Match Rating: **1/2
Brian Pillman vs. Dean Malenko
Heenan never hit the highs of his comedy in WCW that he hit with WWF, but he is still so good at getting wrestlers over and is so valuable to their television product. We get mostly stalling here to start. Malenko gets the first bit of offense in and gets a 2 count with a reverse neck breaker. Pillman hits a tilt-a-whirl DDT and the announcers get on him for not going for the cover there. Malenko hits a variation of a powerbomb and we get an awkward spot where Pillman doesn't make it over the top rope after a dropkick. Pillman goes up top and Malenko is up there to try to stop him. Pillman headbutts him off and then goes for another DDT. This time Malenko counters it and hits a gutbuster that draws some cheers. We then get another weird spot where Malenko's foot gets caught in the rope and I don't see how the referee wouldn't have seen that. Pillman capitalizes and jumps on top of him and holds him down for a 3 count. I like both of these guys a lot but this wasn't good.
Match Rating: 1/2*
They hype up WCW Saturday Night and for some sick reason, I wish I could watch all of those as well.
WCW Tag Team Championship Match
Harlem Heat vs. Sting & Lex Luger
We get a commercial break before the match begins. We get a commercial for SuperBrawl, which is less than 3 weeks away and we have 0 matches that I'm aware of. Booker kicks Luger in the back while he's running the ropes and the distraction allows for Stevie Ray to take control. Luger fires back with a double clothesline and makes the tag to Sting. We get some Stinger Splashes in the corner and he goes for the Scorpion Death Lock but gets hit by the scissor kick from Booker. Sting runs into a boot in the corner and hits a modified bulldog from the second rope for a 2 count. Bischoff really can be annoying as a face announcer. It's probably for the best that he turned heel. Harlem Heat hit a double face-first suplex on Sting and Booker goes up top. He misses with the somersault off the top and Sting makes the tag to Luger. Jimmy Hart is out and hands something to Luger. This whole spot is so awkward. Why does WCW suck at this stuff so badly? The tag to Luger is treated as if it never happened I guess because the referee didn't see it but you'd have to be a moron to think that Sting didn't tag him since he was about 10 inches the last time the ref saw. Luger stands in the corner with his hand behind his back just to make it even more obvious. He gets tagged in and hits him with it and the quarters burst and the referee thinks nothing of that. Anyway, we have new tag champions and this was just so poorly executed that it's hard to give it a good rating.
Match Rating: *
One Man Gang vs. Hulk Hogan
This is your reminder that One Man Gang was somehow the US Champion in 1996. Only in WCW would you have two title matches that end up in titles changing hands and still main event a show with Hulk Hogan and One Man Gang. Hogan knocks Gang off the apron and they start "brawling" outside the ring. I use that term lightly. Back in the ring, Gang hits a body slam and hits the big splash. Hogan of course bounces right back up and throws Gang into the corners and hits a clothesline. Hogan hits the slowest looking big boot ever and hits a body slam. Leg drop is enough to end this match and put us all out of our misery. This sucked worse than you probably even expected. If you think it can't get worse, Zodiac comes out and tries to attack him. Then Chris Benoit comes out and Arn Anderson follows. Randy Savage is in there to help. None of them get any offense in because why would 10 people be able to take care of 2? Giant comes out but everyone holds him back.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Mean Gene is in the ring with Hogan and Savage...again. They basically give the same interview as they did earlier. They hype up Kevin Greene being in their corner tomorrow and same with Miss Elizabeth. Gene is excited about that.
The crew recaps the show and hypes up Clash Of The Champions.
On paper, this should have been an amazing show. Instead, this one showcased all of WCW's flaws instead. Their stupid loyalty to Hogan, giving title changes away just because and poorly executed finishes. The first match was fun but everything after was not great.
Overall Rating: 41%
No comments:
Post a Comment