Tag Archives: monday night wars

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 7 – 10/16/95

Week 7

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RAW: 10/16/95
Grand Rapids, MI

I’m just going to point out that this is Week 4 of the tapings at Grand Rapids. This is also the go home show for the In Your House PPV.

Isaac Yankem, Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart all cut promos with dental puns about tonight’s Steel Cage match.

We now have the “new” RAW theme. Unfortunately it’s bland and it sucks.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Doink the Clown

I had no idea Doink made it this long into 1995.

Apparently Mabel was fined $7,500 for what he did to The Undertaker last week. Gorilla Monsoon is announcing a replacement for Undertaker at In Your House later tonight.

Doink grabbing HHH’s nose is a bit funny.

Doink somehow makes himself dizzy and HHH takes him down.

HHH pins Doink. Pedigree wins. Match was decent I suppose, but not exactly the hot opener to keep people from switching to Nitro.

Barry Horowitz tries to teach Hakushi American concepts like baseball. What a waste of Hakushi.

Monsoon selects Yokozuna to face Mabel. Oh boy.

WWF Tag Team Championship
The Smokin’ Gunns© vs. PG-13

I don’t know if PG-13 was supposed to be taken seriously, but JC Ice pretty much makes an ass out of himself here.

Lawler actually adds some psychology into this match, saying PG-13 are purposely acting stupid to take advantage of the Gunns being overconfident…and then that’s what happens!

Billy Gunn pins Wolfie D to retain the titles. PG-13 got some offense in, but ultimately this was a squash. You know considering the Tag Team Division consisted of the Gunns, the Godwinns, The New Rockers and the Bodydonnas for the next year PG-13 getting a shot might have been a good idea. Ah well.

Bertha Faye vs. Alundra Blayze next week for the Women’s title.

Random British Bulldog interview that happened at a house show. The Bulldog doesn’t feel respected. And he’s gonna beat Diesel for the title.

Ahmed Johnson interview. He takes about how his mom made minimum wage to let him go to school and such. Hard to understand.

Dean Douglas vs. Joe Morgan

We’re still doing the jobber thing eh? Clearly Vince didn’t have anything left on this taping.

Notably, the Shawn Michaels getting beat up by 10 men in Syracuse deal took place the weekend before this RAW. Surprisingly Lawler says it was because HBK mouthed off at a nightclub (closer to the truth). HBK guarantees he’ll be at In Your House…although we all know how that went.

Dean Douglas wins by pin. Fisherman’s Suplex wins it.

Vince and Lawler run down the upcoming In Your House card.

Goldust promo on Marty Jannetty. It’s short, yet somehow a lot better than the Ahmed one we got earlier.

Now a Paul Bearer promo. He’s worried Taker will never look the same again and never be the same again, but he’s coming back soon and he’s going to crush Mabel and Yokozuna’s soul.

Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem

There’s also a smaller cage at ringside that Jerry Lawler must enter if he interferes in the match.

Yankem takes some big bumps off the top rope when tryng to climb the cage. This has been pretty slow, but at least Yankem’s trying.

Apparently Lawler switched the locks on the cage door, and when Bret tries to escape the ref can’t unlock the door.

Bret locks Yankem in the Sharpshoter then tries to climb out, but Lawler knocks him back in. Lawler gets locked in the small cage as a result. The cage also rises and Lawler’s apparently afraid of heights.

Bret Hart seems to be going at half speed here. A few times now he’s fallen and messed up straddling himself on the top rope.

Lawler gets a nosebleed and starts crying. He’s stealing the show here.

Bret Hart wins in 19:50. Bret gets a bulldog and a top rope forearm before escaping. This went way too long and was pretty boring. Yankem tried for sure, but he just wasn’t any good yet. Bret seemed to be going at half speed. And there’s a reason for that.

So apparently this show was just a leftover of whatever unused bits that was filmed for the tapings. Despite this being the go home show for the PPV we got a pretty horrible show. HHH vs. Doink? Dean Douglas vs. a jobber? It was written that Bret vs. DDS wasn’t even going to air on RAW, but it had to after the WWF realized it needed to fill the 4th taping.

Last week the WWF gave us a really hot match and post-match beatdown that at least helped sell the PPV. But this week? Nothing. At least for Bret he would be reinserted into the title picture after finishing off Yankem here.

The WWF had given us some solid shows since this Monday Night War began, but this was easily the worst one so far. And to no one’s surprise no one bought the PPV either.

The rating held though, so at least the WWF had that going for them.

TV Rating: 2.6 (0.0)
Grade: C

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Nitro: 10/16/95
Albany, GA

WCW clearly wins the opening video package war now.

Bobby Heenan makes fun of Steve McMichael’s dog and even that’s funny. The Brian is truly a genius.

On WCW Pro Sting agreed to be Ric Flair’s partner for Nitro and Halloween Havoc. Sting warns Flair that if he crosses him Flair is dead.

Heenan really hypes up Sting teaming with Flair, telling us that it hasn’t happened since 1990.

Television Championship
Diamond Dallas Page© vs. Johnny B. Badd

Page beats Badd down with the title belt and gets DQed. No match here. Page is hilarious though, pinning Badd and then using the Badd Blaster when he counts his own three.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero

This is Benoit’s WCW debut (after he appeared last week).

Great headscissors sequence from Benoit. Fast paced action so far.

Eddy goes flying and takes out Benoit on the floor!

Guerrero sends Benoit into the post…then Guerrero runs and slams into the post himself. That looked so real…

Springboard Tornado DDT from Guerrero!

Crazy hurricanrana sequence from Guerrero! Great stuff here all around.

Benoit with a stiff as hell powerbomb! Wow! Fans gasped after that one.

Chris Benoit pins Eddy Guerrero in 8:45. Dragon suplex wins it. Awesome match that not only show cased Benoit, but also made Guerrero look great too. Great action.

Apparently WCW is creating a Cruiserweight Division. That would be awesome for the next couple of years for sure.

Mean Gene tries to sell the hotline. Someone from the WWF was fired! It was Bill Watts. He also teases information about a wrestler getting beat up by a fan. He’s referring to HBK there.

Taskmaster and The Giant are on their way down.

Promo is all about Sullivan being evil and Hogan having an evil side too. Sullivan has to say the word evil about 20 times. It’s still hard to take the whole Monster Truck deal seriously.

Disco Inferno is out dancing again.

Meng vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Duggan falls down for no reason to move out of the way of an elbow drop.

Meng wins in 2:00. The spike makes Duggan give up. Only two minutes, but it was pretty bad anyway. Just a win to give Meng as he prepares to face Lex Luger in a couple weeks at Halloween Havoc.

A black clad Hulk Hogan cuts a promo on the Giant and how he’s evil too. He mentions too that Hulkamania makes promotors cry because it’s bigger than the whole promotion. Another shot at Vince I guess? He actually says he’s going to bury the Giant next toAndre as well. Ugh.

Sting and Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson and Flyin’ Brian

Sting doesn’t come out and Flair goes at it alone.

Flair does pretty well nonetheless as he chops everything that moves.

Pillman and Anderson finally get the upperhand…and here comes Sting!

Sting gets tagged in and goes crazy on Pillman and Anderson. Crowd is going wild for the Stinger too.

Sting and Flair win by countout. Sting tosses Anderson and he doesn’t make it back. Of course, this was a really good set up for Halloween Havoc which I won’t spoil here. Really fun main event even if it had a bad finish. Sting looked like the biggest star in the business here. Sting tells Flair he has a lot of guts fighting his former brother in Anderson and Flair calls Sting the best. Man this angle is awesome.

It had some dull spots, but this was a really fun show just for the main event and Benoit vs. Guerrero.

TV Rating: 2.2 (-0.4)
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

It’s easy this week. RAW was a poor show at a bad time. Jobber matches and poorly taped shows aren’t going to cut it in the Monday Night War era. Nitro gave us a hot Benoit vs. Guerrero match and a fun main event with Sting and Flair teaming up. It’s a testament to how deep WCW’s roster was here that we got a great show despite no Randy Savage or Lex Luger.

The ratings told a different story as RAW won the week. I assume this was because we did get a really good show last week and people cared about Bret Hart. Curious to see what we get next week rating wise from RAW. WCW still needs time to establish their brand, and it’s not like they’re getting killed on the ratings front or anything. But show quality wise, WCW won the week easily.

TV Ratings Score: 3-1-2 RAW

Grade Score: 2-2-2

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 5 – 10/2/95

October 1995 Background

WCW Nitro had come out and shockingly given Vince McMahon a run for his money. Still, it had to be a promising sign that the current WWF stars: Diesel, Bret, Undertaker, Shawn seemed to be drawing as well as Flair, Hogan, Luger, Savage, Sting on TV. Maybe Vince is right about all those guys (sans Sting) being washed up. Or maybe the WWF brand is really what matters.

Still, WCW had a really strong start. Vince still needed some time to build to one of his big events: Survivor Series. Could WCW put on the pressure with the Hogan vs. Giant feud? Could Vince make the October In Your House mean something?

Week 5

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RAW: 10/2/95
Grand Rapids, MI

We get a recap of last week’s RAW, where the Smokin’ Gunns regained the Tag Titles.

Now we recap the history between Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid. It’s cool to see an angle referenced back to 1993. Kid beat Ramon twice now, once in 1993 and two weeks ago thanks to Dean Douglas. I don’t understand what Vince means by “will the third time be the charm for the Kid?” Um…he’s won both times!

Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid

Hot start. Kid and Ramon waste no time and go back and forth until Ramon catches him for a fall away slam.

Dean Douglas is out here taking notes once again. Dean Douglas was not a bad character to be honest.

Razor Ramon pins the 1-2-3 Kid. Clothesline ends it. Surprising ending. But wait, the Kid wants to keep going…and the match continues?

During the break, the Kid gets driven hard by a Ramon powerbomb after Kid came off the top. Ramond got ANOTHER pin…but the Kid wanted a SECOND rematch.

Razor Ramon pins 1-2-3 Kid. Ramon teases the Razor’s Edge, but then beats the Kid with a small package. Ramon beats the Kid three times…but he didn’t go out to injure him. Ramon and Kid shake hands…then Kid tries a small package which Razor kicks out of. Razor actually smiles, showing admiration for the Kid. This is pretty great storytelling. The Kid was the youngster who felt like he needed to earn Razor’s respect and did so without having to win. Great start to RAW.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Barry Horowitz

Horowitz was actually pretty over after his upset of Skip at Summerslam.

Pretty cool armbar takedown leading to a shot to the face with the leg by HHH.

Last week was the most watched RAW ever. The Monday Night Wars really ejected an adrenaline shot into pro wrestling that WCW would take advantage of a lot better than the WWF would.

It’s amazing how over Horowitz was. He gets several creative near falls and the fans are with him at every turn.

HHH pins Horowitz. Horowitz makes one mistake though, as an attempted backdrop becomes the Pedigree and it’s over. Good match. HHH continues his undefeated streak and Horowitz keeps doing the underdog thing.

PG-13 vs. Al Brown and Sonny Rogers

PG-13 are the USWA World Tag Team Champions. They can be described as a cross between ECW and Too Cool.

Really don’t care about a jobber match. This is the stuff the WWF needed to get rid of when facing Nitro.

Gotta give credit where it is due though. Some great double team moves from PG-13. Dropkick + Russian Legsweep combo for example.

PG-13 wins by pin. Cool twisting slam by Wolfie D on JC Ice onto Green. I wonder why the WWF didn’t keep going with PG-13. They challenged the Gunns and everything!

Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre-Lafitte

A rematch from In Your House a couple of weeks ago.

Early on Bret slams Lafitte into the ring steps. Seems pretty extreme for WWF 1995!

Lafitte eventually takes over and Bret makes him look like a million bucks.

Jerry Lawler’s anti-Bret commentary is pretty great here as well.

Bret Hart wins by submission. Superplex and Sharpshooter. Great main event, although I believe this was the end of Lafitte. Bret confronts Lawler and beats him up afterwards before Isaac Yankem shows up and attacks Bret. That’s the last midcard feud Bret would deal with before setting sight on the WWF Title again.

Vince hypes up next week’s RAW Main Event: Diesel, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker vs. Yokozuna, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. To say that’s a huge main event is an understatement and it shows Vince was giving it a real shot against Nitro here.

Anyway, I enjoyed this show from top to bottom, even the PG-13 stuff. These 1995 RAWs are pretty good!

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

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Nitro: 10/2/95
Denver, CO

Ric Flair with a crazy promo to kick things off. Nice. He’s coming for you Double A!

We kick it off with a match that feels like it should be on PPV, Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage with Luger’s WCW career on the line. While it feels like this is something that happened too fast, I guess this was definitely something you couldn’t miss.

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage: If Luger loses he leaves WCW

Randy Savage wears the most ridiculous colors for his attire and it doesn’t matter one bit. Savage is so good.

The promo for the Monster Truck Match for Halloween Havoc is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

The match has had two spots where neither man got the advantage. It’s pretty well done. Luger eventually gets a neckbreaker on the floor and the advantage.

Ref is out and Savage hits the big elbow…and here comes The Giant!

Lex Luger wins when Randy Savage doesn’t respond to the referee in 12:30. Luger gets Savage up in the Rack and Savage is out from a Giant chokeslam, and Luger keeps his career. It’s oddly not treated as a huge deal that Luger just saved his career, but whatever. Pretty good match, a lot better than I was expecting. It went back and forth and it continues telling a great story about Luger (is he a good guy or bad?)

Disco Inferno! Eddy Guerrero interrupts Disco’s dancing (with Juvi‘s future music).

Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero

Basically ECW’s TV Title feud of 1995 here.

Malenko kips up from being pushed down, which was freakin’ awesome.

Just awesome sequences early on.

We get a side by side camera shot with the match…as Hulk Hogan shows up. Ah, the WCW tradition of ignoring the match in the ring for Hogan.

We don’t even see the match anymore. It’s all Hogan!

Back to the match, and Malenko and Guerrero are putting on a technical exhibition.

AWESOME top rope plancha from Guerrero to Malenko on the floor! He hit the aisleway!

Eddie Guerrero pins Dean Malenko in 5:41. Ending came out of nowhere where Eddie trapped Malenko on the mat, similar to Bret-Bulldog at Summerslam ’92. Shame it was so short as it was owning. Malenko says Guerrero got lucky and wants a rematch. Guerrero said any place any time.

Here comes Hogan in a neck brace. I am annoyed his stuff cut into the last match.

Generic promo where Hogan says he is going to get the Giant since he’s not out yet. Hogan decides to slap all the fans hands and is attacked by a random old woman (which Mean Gene hilariously calls). Of course, it’s Kevin Sullivan. Giant makes his way out and “breaks” Hogan’s neck. American Males and Nasty Boys run in but Giant and Zodiac Man take them out. The Dungeon of Doom shave Hogan’s mustache off. While Hogan’s promo was nothing to write home about, the attack was pretty brilliant and the Giant looks like a bad ass heel taking out everyone.

We get the Halloween Havoc promo again. Just hilarious.

Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

They just go at it right from the outset, knocking each other down with chops and hard shots.

A good back and forth that really showed Arn was at an elite level.

Ric Flair wins by DQ in 8:30. Flair has the Figure Four when Brian Pillman comes flying off the top to cause the DQ. Anderson and Pillman beat up Flair. Shame about the DQ. Solid match.

Apparently, we’re getting Flair vs. Arn Anderson in a cage on Nitro next week! Screw waiting for PPV!

WCW brought it this week, but I thought shortchanged two of their matches. Luger defeating Savage seemed like something that just happened, and Luger’s career hanging in the balance was an afterthought. Guerrero vs. Malenko was good but short, and overshadowed by Hogan. BUT, those matches and the main event were all solid, and the Hogan beat down was well done too. Another good Nitro. Best of all for Nitro, their rating has stabilized in the mid 2s.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

Both shows brought it this week once again. I think the WWF’s only real shot here is if the Hogan-Giant angle gets too hokey. I mean, a Monster Truck Match is pretty out there. Then again, we just had a pirate in the main event of RAW. The big victory for WCW is that Nitro is hanging tough with the WWF and even outshining them at some points (like Malenko vs. Guerrero).

A pure tie this week. Both shows brought it this week and it showed in TV Ratings. Hopefully both can keep the momentum. Hotshotting is becoming a bit of an issue, especially with career ending matches on Nitro (and a potential feud ending cage match next week).

TV Ratings Score: 2-1-1 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1-2

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 3 – 9/18/95

Week 3

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Nitro: 9/18/95
Jefferson City, TN

It’s the night after Fall Brawl! Nitro had the better show last week so they’ll go first!

An ambulance starts the show…and inside is Kevin Sullivan and The Giant. Mean Gene tells him that this father would be disappointed. Remember, he’s the son of Andre! Kinda funny promo from the Giant. He had a solid three months in pro wrestling at the time, so we’ll have to cut him some slack.

The American Males vs. The Bluebloods

This would be Regal and Bobby Eaton. Jean-Paul was gone at this point.

Well, it wouldn’t really be them either, since Harlem Heat attacks. They offer the American Males a World Tag Team Title shot. The American Males get a free shot at the tag title just like that!

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat© vs. The American Males

Riggs sells the Axe Kick in seemingly slow motion. At least it wasn’t Booker’s finisher yet.

Booker’s flying side kick was always awesome. Watching Booker knowing what I know now I can’t say it’s surprising he became a big star.

Nice “WE WANT IT RAW” sign in the crowd there.

The American Males win the title in 4:40 when Marcus Bagwell pinned Booker T. Sherri Martel is about to hit Bagwell, but Col. Robert Parker comes down and Sherri falls into his arms (I totally forgot the slave owner angle of Harlem Heat. Yikes). Sherri and Parker are apparently in love. Whatever. Anyway Bagwell reverses a pump handle slam into a bodypress pin and gets the win. It’s a weak victory, but once again, something notable happens on Nitro.

SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

Ric Flair interview. He’s angry that Arn Anderson got a non-Horseman to help him in their feud (referring to Brian Pillman). He also calls it Johnson City, Tennessee. Based on what Mene Gene says I think that was a sexual reference.

Mr. Wonderful vs. Johnny B. Badd

I really love that music for Orndorff.
Badd was on his way out here. He’d be Marc Mero in the WWF in five months.

Mr. Wonderful pins Johnny B. Badd in 6:40. Orndorff blocks a sunset flip. The finish is botched though, as Badd’s shoulders were clearly up and the ref didn’t seem to actually count the three.

Randy Savage gets attacked by Sullivan on a beach, so Savage responds in an interview. Flair is one of those who help him. Savage says he thinks Luger is joining the Dungeon of Doom. Luger comes out to respond. He wants a match right now but Mean Gene says this isn’t the time of the place (the middle of the ring on Nitro?!).

We go back to the day of Fall Brawl for a Hulk Hogan interview. The Giant comes in on a monster truck and smashes the motorcycle Hogan was on. This would lead to the Monster Truck Match at Halloween Havoc of course. There’s a funny scene here where Hogan is slamming on the truck and Giant is just laughing.

Then a Fall Brawl recap of Giant at Fall Brawl interfering in the War Games, where he attacked Hogan.

Ric Flair vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

Flair actually comes off the top rope and hits Pillman with an axhandle smash on the floor. Didn’t expect that from Flair.

This match has been ALL Flair.

Flair goes for the Figure Four, but Pillman reverses into a small package, but doesn’t get the hook of the leg.

Ric Flair wins by submission in 5:24. Figure Four gets it done. Total burial of Pillman there? I mean I think he got two moves in. Flair taunts Arn afterwards.

Overall, I think this was a step back for Nitro. The first show felt like can’t miss TV. Same with the second show (with Sabu and the Hogan vs. Luger title match). Here? Nothing special really. American Males winning the tag titles is cool I guess and a moment for sure, but it doesn’t compare to watching international talents like Sabu and Jushin Liger. And Flair vs. Pillman wasn’t that good either.

Every show can’t be blow away, but there isn’t anything to take me away from RAW this week. Unless of course the RAW show blows. The rating here also indicated that this was a step back.

Oddly, they didn’t give away any RAW Results this week.

TV Rating: 1.9 (-0.5)
Grade: C+

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RAW: 9/18/95
Canton, Ohio

We get a recap of the 1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon issue from last week.

It should be pointed out that Vince keeps saying this is a special Thursday edition of RAW…but nothing else seems to indicate that. The research I did. The Network. Etc.

This is still taped from August, so no responding to Nitro yet.

1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon

Kid starts off fast. All of this would lead to the eventual Kid heel turn.

Nice flying over the top rope dropkick from the Kid!

The Kid has dominated the match-up. We also get a sleeper, which is also when they go to commercial. I’m okay with commercials during matches during a hold though.

We got a ref bump!

The 1-2-3 Kid pins Razor Ramon in 7:08. After a collision where the ref got hurt, Dean Douglas comes flying off the top onto Ramon. Kid rolls in to get the pin. The wheels of the turn were starting.

Dean Douglas interview now. Kid gets a D for dumb. Ramon gets an E. Elevate. He’s doing that in order to face Dean Douglas. A for Douglas! The PPV this weekend gets a N. No-Brainer on who will be victorious. That spells Dead. To be honest, that was a good promo.

Tatanka and Kama Mustafa vs. Savio Vega and Bob Holly

Crowd is pretty dead for this, although Vega got a solid reaction for his entrance.

Vega is your face in peril.

We don’t even see the hot tag to Holly on camera.

Kama and Tatanka win when Kama pins Holly in 5:47. Holly comes off the top with a bodypress, but Kama “rolls” through and gets the pin. Ugly finish. Match wasn’t too bad though.

Ramon interview. He’s of course responding to Douglas.

Jean Pierre LaFitte vs. Brian Walsh

Squash match for the pirate ahoy! We go over LaFitte stealing the Hitman sunglasses from fans. Yeah, that wasn’t Bret’s best feud.

We get Bret on the phone. He’s upset that Bret has gotten his jacket and stuff stolen. He’s also confused as he didn’t know pirates still existed. Poor Bret.

LaFitte pins Walsh in 3:18. Cannonball (Swanton?) for the win. I hope this is the last squash we get on RAW ever.

We get some hype about the In Your House main event of HBK and Diesel vs. Owen and Yoko. All titles on the line!

Owen Hart and Yokozuna vs. Men on a Mission

Non-title match here. This is your main event! It’s also heel vs. heel, which is strange.

Owen is playing the face in peril. Interesting. Well it can’t be anyone else in this match for sure.

Here comes Yokozuna! We get Yoko and Mabel going at it as Owen now plays the heel. I actually like both teams cheating. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Mo and Owen both go for spinning wheel kicks at the same time. Never seen that before.

Weird, now Mabel is playing the face making the big comeback.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna win when Owen pinned Mo in 9:30. Yoko kills Mo with the big legdrop, and then holds Mabel’s foot so he can’t break up the pin. Pretty good match amazingly. Owen carried the whole thing, and the heel vs. heel dynamic oddly worked.

Diesel and HBK interview about Owen and Yoko. Something about John Madden.

Cornette interview. Runs down HBK and Diesel of course. He brings up a good point that the last time Diesel and HBK were a team, they broke up.

Lawler predicts Yokozuna walks out of In Your House with the WWF Title. Vince then tells us that we are getting Undertaker vs. British Bulldog on RAW next week. Not bad.

Anyway…solid showing here. A good opener and a surprisingly good main event bookends a lot of boring stuff. The wrestling itself was also better than this week’s Nitro. Sure, nothing between Summerslam and Survivor Series really mattered, but they still had to get to Survivor Series…right?

TV Rating: 2.7
Grade: B

Weekly Review

All the talent in the world and that’s the Nitro we get? Shoulda just scrapped Badd vs. Orndorff and let Pillman and Flair go another five minutes in that case. Nitro for the first time felt like it could be a miss, unless you like monster trucks or something.

That doesn’t mean RAW was can’t miss either. But there were better matches on RAW, and solid build for a PPV no one was really talking about at all.

TV Ratings Score: 2-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1 Tie

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 1 (9/4/95)

Reviewed 9/3/14

September 1995 Background

The latest…and biggest shot has been fired.

The WWF had been the major player in wrestling for a solid decade at this point. The NWA and WCW were always a distant second place until about 1994. Before then it was the WWF’s big gimmicky promotions against the top tier wrestling of WCW (note, each would have a little of the opposite in them). In 1994 though the tides had changed in a big way. The WWF had moved to becoming a more athletic wrestling show led by Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. WCW signed Hulk Hogan to an insane deal and suddenly looked gimmicky all around (and a lot like the old WWF). WCW would continue to sign away big talent from the WWF through 1994 and 1995, with men such as Hogan, Randy Savage and others all jumping ship.

And for some reason, Vince gave up on the athletic type and went back to the superman big man. 1995 this didn’t work. ”Big Daddy Cool” Diesel turned out to be the worst drawing WWF Champion of all time (not all his fault to be fair). WCW also kept the pressure on, running 10 PPV events in 1995 and forcing Vince to run an “In Your House” event each month. Reviews on the IYH events ranged from mixed to poor. 1995 was just a bad year for the WWF. Bad booking, competition on the way, and stars leaving to WCW.

WCW meanwhile hit some big peaks in 1994 when Hogan showed up. Hogan’s popularity did plateau rather quickly though. But with bigger star power overall (Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan vs. Michaels, Bret, Diesel) Ted Turner famously asked Eric Bischoff “Hey Eric, what would it take to compete with WWF?” Bischoff joking said Monday Night primetime. And Turner gave it to him. The Monday Night War had begun.

For September, we would see that WCW smartly began on a date that the WWF would be pre-empted. WCW would hit upon some big moments right away and immediately change how each show would be booked.

Note, the show that has the best review the week prior will go first in the post, as insignificant as that actually is.

Week 1

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Nitro: 9/4/95
Minneapolis, MN

It should be pointed out that Nitro debuted at a time where RAW was pre-empted for two weeks. Pretty smart right off the bat.

Nitro intro video is pretty cool even today. Theme is great too.

Very odd that Nitro is coming live from the Mall of America.

Nitro already puts something on that was pretty unique and cool, which is the opening match.

Steve McMichael calls Bobby Heenan “Bobby the Stain” for the whole show. Ugh.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Flyin’ Brian

Cool cartwheel kick to start. Bischoff on commentary is really pumping Nitro up as something never seen before in big league wrestling.

Pretty bad timing as Jushin Liger climbs up to the top rope and Pillman just stands there and takes the moonsault.

Wooo, surfboard!

Decent high flying stuff from Liger, including a somersault off the apron. Maybe it hasn’t aged great, but it was pretty cool stuff for its time, even if the 1-2-3 Kid was doing just as good stuff.

Pillman gets a perfect dropkick on Liger coming from the top.

Top rope hurricanrana from Liger!

Tornado DDT from Pillman! Maybe it’s just a bunch of spots, but it’s a fun match.

Brian Pillman pins Jushin Liger. Pillman gets a victory roll from the win. A fun little 6 minute match that wouldn’t be great if it was on PPV, but just fine for a TV show. Bischoff went right ahead in trying to get a good start for Nitro with something unique and he succeeded.

Sting promo. He’s gonna lock Flair in the Scorpion!

Hulk Hogan is promoting PASTAMANIA in the Mall of America! He hypes up the WCW Title match later in the show. PASTAMANIA is gonna run wild on Big Bubba brother!

WCW United States Championship
Sting© vs. Ric Flair

I’d almost be upset this wasn’t main eventing, but it makes sense as Hogan is Hogan.

One of the most historic moments in the entire war happens in the first show as Lex Luger walks down the aisle. Luger had just appeared at WWF Summerslam eight nights prior. No one in the WWF locker room knew it was happening. Want to complain about WWF no-competes these days, it was moments like this that caused them. This was absolutely brilliant from Bischoff.

Of course, Sting and Flair give him a look, since that’s who had history with Luger when he left in 1992. Another great thing about this moment is the less is more approach. All Luger did was just walk down the aisle. That was it. Big Luger chants too.

We get some typical Sting-Flair stuff, which is always great. Of course, it’s the shortened version, but that’s okay.

WCW’s star power was pretty much on display here. While the WWF did have big matches on RAW before this, you never really saw two top guys go at it (say, Bret vs. Shawn on RAW). Here, WCW could afford to do Sting vs. Flair since the roster was deep.

Arn Anderson is down here. This was a time that Anderson and Flair were not getting along.

I like how a great wrestler like Ric Flair had a finish that always seemed to get broken.

Sting retains by DQ. Arn Anderson just walks into the ring and breaks up the Figure Four. He proceeds to beat the crap out of Ric Flair. Good match, and it furthered the story for Anderson and Flair. Anderson got a huge reaction.

Scott “Flash” Norton confronts Bischoff, but is cut off by Randy Savage. Fans pop huge for this, I didn’t even remember this Norton moment to be fair. Savage wants to go right now, but it doesn’t happen. Still, really cool and another moment that showed anything could happen.

We get a Sabu hype video! Interesting Sabu didn’t get over in WCW. Probably cause he bought Mr. JL and Alex Wright every week. Still cool though.

We get some WCW Saturday Night hype. Then some Fall Brawl hype!

Michael Wallstreet debut promo. “I’m sure the IRS is going to be watching me real close.” Brilliant!

WCW World Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Big Bubba Rogers

Hogan vs. Bossman in 1995! It works though.

Hogan had actually been champion for some 13 months at this point.

We do get the announcement of Savage vs. Norton next week on Nitro! I’m actually excited for that one even though Norton would become a midcard guy.

Hogan looks better here than he did in WWF 1993, if that matters.

Oddly Hogan and the ref exchange words after Hogan gets his hair pulled by the ref. Interesting.

I always wondered how Hogan got away with heel moves like the double elbow foot eye rake deal.

The crowd is actually pretty dead for the Hulk Up.

Hulk Hogan retains by pin. But the pop huge for the pin. By the numbers Hogan match, but the Bossman sold for Hogan like a million bucks. Good main event considering who’s involved.
The Dungeon of Doom run in and attack Hogan…and Lex Luger runs in to fight them off! Hogan and Luger come back to back and nearly come to blows.

Luger challenges Hogan for a WCW World Title match, deriding the WWF in the process. He says some questionably true statements (“I’VE BEATEN WHO YOU’VE BEATEN”) and Hogan gives him credit…then offers him the title shot for next week’s Nitro! Sure, some words went wrong there (“I’ll shake your stinky palm” from Hogan and “you don’t have to wait till next week”, also from Hogan), but the whole segment was really effective.

This show was very good, and EXACTLY what WCW needed to kick off the Monday Night War. Vince probably watched this show and shit his pants, especially when Luger showed up. Now Vince had to go up against Hogan vs. Luger for the WCW Title next week. Serves Vince right for wasting Luger after he didn’t get over as the top guy in 93-94.

Not the best show, but a very good one that showcased a lot of great stuff for WCW. Historically, it’s one of the most important dates in pro wrestling history, and it laid the groundwork for RAWs you even see today, as this would be the end of squash matches against nobodies on Monday Night. Of course…that matters.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: A+

Weekly Review

RAW was pre-empted by the US Open and in fact had already taped all of their shows for the next two weeks. Nitro being live each week would put some serious pressure on the WWF to step up their game. The last RAW on August 21st, 1995 had MOM vs. two jobbers, the 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Brooklyn Brawler, The Undertaker vs. Tatanka, Jean-Pierre LaFitte vs. Scott Taylor (a nobody at this point) and Diesel and the British Bulldog vs. MOM. This show had Sting vs. Flair, Pillman vs. Liger and Hogan vs. the former Big Bossman. I mean…which show is the minor leagues again?

Nitro’s rating was also quite impressive. RAW had done (I am missing a source though) mid 2s to low 3s, so for Nitro to put up a rating in that range right off the bat was impressive.

The score remains tied at 0-0 here as there was no heads up battle…but next week will be a bigger story.

TV Ratings Score: 0-0

Grade Score: 0-0