Monday Nitro – February 9, 1998

Date:
February 9, 1998

Location:
Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas

Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

We’re
inching closer to Souled Out with the core of the card already set.
As for tonight we’ve got the Outsiders vs. the Steiners for the tag
titles for the 87th time along with Hogan vs. Savage for
the 870th time. That’s a very stacked show for a Nitro in
early February. Let’s get to it.

We
open with a recap of Savage vs. Hogan.

There’s
no Larry Zbyszko and Tony doesn’t know where he is.

Here
are Hogan and Bischoff to open things up. The fans want Sting but
get to hear Bischoff saying he won the war against WCW by following
the rules. Not Turner’s rules or WCW’s rules, but Hollywood’s rules.
Hogan says he’s tired of fans talking about the NWO falling apart
but he’s even more tired about hearing Savage is taking over the
team. Tonight is about family business and he’s going to teach
Savage a lesson in the ring tonight. Savage is up in the crowd and
accepts the challenge, saying he’ll take Hogan’s spot at SuperBrawl.

Nitro
Girls.

We
get a quick video recapping Mongo vs. Bulldog.

Louie
Spicolli has jumped into the commentary booth and is carrying bags he
says belongs to “his friend” Larry. Still no word on where Larry
is. Glacier tries to jump the Texan from behind but gets slugged
down to the floor with ease. Back in and Glacier pounds away, only
to send Mongo right back to the floor. They head back in again for
Glacier to fire off his basic karate stuff followed by a snap suplex.
Glacier jumps into an elbow, gets forearmed in the head a few times
and the Mongo Spike (tombstone) ends this very quick.

Post
match Mortis runs in to attack Glacier because this feud can’t die.
Mongo makes the save for no apparent reason and says Bulldog is next.

Technical
sequence to start with Konnan rolling out of a full nelson but
getting dropkicked out to the floor. Back in and Norman stomps
Konnan down before cranking on the leg in one of those holds that
only old school wrestlers like Smiley know about. After a rope is
grabbed, Konnan finally comes back with a clothesline and the low
dropkick as the announcers ignore the match to talk about the main
events.

A
DDT puts Norman down again and the fans are WAY into Konnan in a rare
sight. Konnan charges into a knee in the corner and Norman gets two
off a PerfecPlex. For a jobber who hardly ever did anything, Norman
could go in the ring. Back up and Smiley charges into the 187
(cradle DDT) and the Tequila Sunrise is good for the tap out.

Rating:
D+. Not a great match or
anything but it was a smart idea to have Konnan get the one good
crowd reaction he’s likely to get this year. Smiley is another in
the long line of jobbers that WCW could throw out there and get a
decent match out of at a moment’s notice. The 187 looked good too
and I’ve always been a fan of that move.

Mike
Tenay interviews a guy from WCW Motorsports. As always, the fans
don’t care.

Nitro
Girls again.

Nick
Patrick is out to referee the next match but JJ says not so fast my
friend. Nick: “I’m not guilty!” JJ: “Don’t care!” Nick:
“Lawsuits!” JJ: “Security!” This story continues to thrill
no one.

Nagata
immediately jumps Disco in the corner before taking him to the mat
for some kicking. A swinging neckbreaker puts Nagata down but Disco
gets smacked in the face to stagger him back again. Nagata pounds
away even more but runs into an elbow in the corner. Disco goes up
but jumps into a right hand to the ribs to keep any momentum from
starting. A German suplex looks to set up a top rope elbow by Nagata
but it only hits mat, allowing Disco to hit the Chartbuster for the
win.

Rating:
C-. This was certainly fast
paced and exciting considering who was in there. Disco’s push
continues but there’s only so much you can do against a black hole
like Nagata. Again, I know the guy is talented, but he isn’t doing
anything in WCW and his matches are usually dull to watch. The
problem is there’s no reason to care about him. He’s just Yuji
Nagata: Japanese heel.

Post
match Nagata comes out and lays out both guys with the chair before
doing THE LA PARKA DANCE!

Luger
says Hogan should be planning for Sting and Savage is crazy for
wanting a No DQ match against him at SuperBrawl. Spicolli leaves to
find who attacked Zbyszko.

Eddie
jumps Chavo to start (that’s a very common practice in WCW anymore)
but Chavo sends him into the barricade after Eddie takes it to the
floor. Back in and Chavo rolls out of a tilt-a-whirl and drops Eddie
with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker of his own. Off to Jericho who is
forced to take off the Cruiserweight Title before he can come in.
Jericho runs Chavo over and the fans are all over the Canadian.
Chavo comes back with a springboard bulldog and it’s off to Malenko
who is VERY popular here in Texas.

Malenko
cleans house on Jericho and they slug it out in the corner. Dean
counters a middle rope dropkick into the Cloverleaf but Eddie comes
in with a missile dropkick to break it up. The fans might like Dean
but the EDDIE chants begin once he gets the tag. Eddie hooks an
abdominal stretch with extra leverage from Jericho but the fans cheer
for him anyway. Off to Jericho for a quick suplex and the arrogant
cover (someone needs to bring that back) for two. Eddie comes back
in with the slingshot hilo and Jericho adds a slingshot splash for
two.

Chris
and Eddie each snap one of Malenko’s legs back at the same time but
Eddie brags a bit too much, allowing Dean to throw him into a hot
shot. A belly to back suplex puts Eddie down but Jericho breaks up
the hot tag attempt. The double underhook backbreaker gets two for
Chris but the Lionsault only hits mat and it’s hot tag Chavo. Eddie
and Jericho double team Chavo down but Eddie talks too much, allowing
Dean to pull him to the apron. Chavo hits a German suplex on Jericho
but Eddie shoves Chavo off the top, sending him into the Liontamer
for the tap out.

Rating:
B. The more I see of these guys
the more amazing it is that WCW did things the way they did. This
was an excellent match with the crowd going reacting to everyone out
there. All four guys looked crisp and on point and the entire match
was at a fast pace. Why these guys never got a shot anywhere near
the top I’ll never know.

Video
on the Steiners’ troubles.

Dandy
takes the arm to start buy Juvy snaps off a quick hurricanrana to
take Dandy down. They head to the apron where Dandy is backdroped up
and over the post and down to the floor. Juvy hits a big dive off
the top to take him out again as the crowd is loving this lucha
stuff. Dandy is sent into the post but comes back with chops in the
ring. A sunset flip gets two for Guerrera but he misses a charge in
the corner. Dandy misses a cross body and walks into the Juvy
Driver, setting up the 450 for the pin by Juvy.

Rating:
C. Dandy wasn’t much but Juvy’s
high spots were more than enough to carry the match. It’s very
interesting to see a crowd that knows their lucha history and cheers
even louder than the average crowd would for a match like this.
Guerrera continues to be one of the better cruiserweights on the
roster and he should be moving into the title scene soon.

Post
match Jericho runs out and jumps Juvy but gets dropkicked out to the
floor. Jericho wants to know what that was for but Juvy yells at him
in Spanish. He wants a title shot but Jericho wants to know what
Juvy will put up. “What do you have besides a rusted out 68
Camaro? Juvy speaks Spanish and offers to put up his mask which is
fine with Jericho.

Here’s
a somewhat famous match. Regal takes him to the mat with a cravate
and kicks Goldberg in the back a few times before grabbing the arm.
Goldberg takes him down by the leg but Regal is quickly in the ropes.
They trade arm wringers again before Regal kicks him in the face.
Regal powers out of a headscissors and fires off knees to the head
before Goldberg shoves him into the corner. Goldberg cranks him down
by the arm and hits a belly to back suplex for no cover.

Goldberg
looks for the spear but Regal headbutts him in the ribs instead and
takes out the leg instead. Regal fires off knees and punches to the
face but Goldberg comes back with a botched swinging neckbreaker. A
shoulder block only kind of hits Regal and he blocks some strikes in
the corner to make Goldberg look even more out of it. Goldberg
finally hits the spear (more like a double leg takedown here) and a
Jackhammer with no delay or snap to it at all finally ends Regal.

Rating:
C. This was definitely more
interesting than a usual Goldberg match but for all the wrong
reasons. Allegedly (Regal has denied this) Regal was shooting on
Goldberg here and most of the match wasn’t planned. It resulted in
Regal being fired almost immediately and eventually becoming A REAL
MAN’S MAN in the WWF. Goldberg looked confused in the match and
Regal easily blocking a lot of his stuff made Goldberg look less
effective than he ever had before.

More
Nitro Girls.

We
see the Nitro Party winner of the week.

Spicolli
has a metal briefcase which presumably is Zbyszko’s bag that he
referenced earlier. Louie hits a quick dropkick to start and pounds
on Adams in the corner, only to be caught in a belly to back suplex.
The Flock arrives at a much later time than usual for them. A belly
to belly suplex and a backdrop put Louie down again and the superkick
looks to finish but Louie gets in a shot with the briefcase for the
fast DQ.

Larry
Zbyszko comes out post match and chases Louie off before shouting
that the NWO is dying.

For
those of you who don’t know, Louie Spicolli died six days after this
at the age of 27 due to a drug overdose/choking on his own vomit in
his sleep.

Dragon
has the awesome black/gold attire tonight. He starts firing off the
kicks to Saturn’s back and chest but Perry pulls him down into an STF
to stop Dragon cold. An overhead belly to belly puts Dragon down and
Saturn hits some high kicks to the head. Dragon comes back with a
quick headscissors but Saturn counters a sunset flip into a Tazzplex.
Off to a cross armbreaker on Dragon before Saturn just crushes
Dragon’s head with a boot in the corner.

Back
to another armbar on Dragon before Saturn turns it into a Fujiwara
armbar. Dragon fights up and hits a quick spin kick to the jaw to
take over. They both fight out of German suplex attempts until
Dragon connects with another kick. The super rana puts Saturn down
but he gets to the ropes before the Dragon Sleeper can go on. An
Asai Moonsault press gets two and a Frankensteiner puts Saturn down.
Dragon reverses a suplex into the Dragon Sleeper but Saturn snapmares
him forward into a small package for the pin.

Rating:
C+. There is some solid
wrestling on this show and this was another good example of it. This
was one of WCW’s strengths as they could take any two guys and throw
them together for a match like this. It’s much better than the WWE
formula of having the same guys fight each other seven times in three
months.

Hour
#3 begins.

We
recap Raven laying out Benoit on Thunder.

Before
the match Raven says that Benoit isn’t here because of the DDT on
Thursday. Booker is holding Flock property, in particular to Saturn.
The Flock jumps Booker but he fights them all off until Raven gets
into it. Booker takes them down as well but Raven finally catches
him in the Even Flow. Saturn comes out for the Rings of Saturn on
Booker as Raven shouts to feel their pain.

Savage
jumps Hogan on his way to the ring and lays out Bischoff as well.
They get inside and Hogan is already begging off so Savage chokes him
with the t-shirt. Hogan keeps crawling away as the fans are
completely behind Savage. Hollywood gets in a thumb to the eye and
pounds away in the corner before biting Savage’s forehead. More
shots to the throat keep Savage in trouble as the fans want Sting.
An elbow drop gets two for Hogan but Savage goes low to get us back
to even.

Back
up and Hogan hits Savage low before putting him down with a belly to
back suplex. Hogan throws Savage to the floor and seems to be
walking in slow motion. Savage sends him into the barricade but the
ax handle from the top hits the steel. Hogan loads up a chair shot
but Liz pulls it out of his hands, allowing Savage to get in a chair
shot of his own. The big elbow connects but here’s the NWO to save
Hogan.

Rating:
C-. It was a fight instead of a
match, but it’s hard to not smile at a Hogan vs. Savage match if
you’re a child of the 80s. The NWO split is coming to a head at this
point and this was a sign that things are really starting to change.
This match was more feeling than actual substance but it was
entertaining through nostalgia and a big fight feel.

Savage
is beaten down post match and Hogan attacks him with a chair. The
NWO walks away but Savage gets up and goes after Hogan as we go to a
break.

Here’s
Luger to call out Savage but gets Liz instead. Liz begs him not go
go after Savage but Luger says he’s not falling for it this time.
Here’s Savage and the fight is on but Sting makes the save. There’s
the Death Drop on Savage as the NWO comes out…..and a net drops
onto Sting and Luger, allowing the NWO to beat them down. There are
so many questions here, I don’t even know where to start.

We
get a clip of the Steiners vs. Hall/Bagwell last week.

Here
are the Outsiders for the main event and the survey. We’re in NWO
country tonight and Hall is glad that the band is back together after
a long time apart. They mention Syxx for the first time in months
and say their catchphrases.

The
Outsiders are defending. For the sake of simplicity, Scott Steiner
will be referred to as Scott and Scott Hall will be referred to as
Hall. Tony says Sting may be injured after that attack. Rick starts
with Hall and the challengers take over early on. It’s off to Scott
but Hall blocks a belly to belly suplex and hooks a chokeslam. Scott
pops back up and hits an overhead belly to belly to take Hall down.
Scott has to go after Nash and Hall takes his head off with a
clothesline.

Nash
gets the tag and fires off the big knee lifts in the corner to keep
Scott in trouble. There’s the choke with the foot and it’s back to
Hall for the fallaway slam. Back to Nash for some posing and a big
boot to the face for no cover. Hall hooks the abdominal stretch
before slapping the back of Scott’s head. Nash comes back in and
teases the Jackknife but elbows Scott in the head instead. Back to
Hall who walks into a side slam but leverages Scott into Rick,
knocking the legal Rick to the floor. Hall loads up the Edge on
Scott but Rick comes in with the top rope bulldog for the pin and the
titles.

Rating:
C. The match was a standard
formula tag match but the ending felt very rushed. It was
interesting to see Scott take the long beating instead of Rick for a
change and the match was at least different than the usual encounters
between these teams. At the same time though, can we PLEASE get
another team to hold the titles? It’s been a year and a half and one
other team has held the titles, with a reign of less than a day.

Scott
teases turning on Rick due to not getting the pin but celebrates to
end the show.

Overall
Rating: B-. You can use a lot
of words to describe this show but the first one on my list is LONG.
If this was just a two hour edition it would have been one of the
best shows they ever produced with some big matches, some excellent
action and some good build for SuperBrawl. The problem though is we
had stuff like Mongo vs. Glacier and Disco vs. Nagata doing nothing
more than filling in time. Things are looking good for WCW at the
moment, but where are Hart and Flair? They haven’t been on TV since
the PPV three weeks ago. Anyway good show tonight.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com