Monday Nitro – December 21, 1998

Date:
December 21, 1998
Location: TWA Dome, St. Louis, Missouri

Attendance:
29,000

Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

It’s
the go home show for Starrcade and the top part of the card is set.
Unfortunately even after Thunder, I’m pretty sure only four matches
have been announced. The main idea for tonight will probably be just
tying up loose ends before we get to Sunday, meaning there isn’t
likely to be much of note tonight. Let’s get to it.

We
open with a LONG recap of the NWO forming and Bischoff joining them a
few months later. This sets up Flair vs. Bischoff at Starrcade.

The
announcers do their thing.

Feeling
out process to start with neither guy really wanting to do anything.
Finlay takes him down to the mat and cranks on a headlock with Larry
pointing out how the forearm is right in Putski’s jaw. A hard back
elbow is enough to put Putski down again and Finlay cranks on an
early chinlock.

The
announcers talk about how Flair has Bischoff running scared. The
heart attack isn’t mentioned at all, making me think it’s going to be
completely wasted and forgotten about in just a few weeks. To be
fair that’s probably not the worst thing in the world. Finlay shifts
over to a leg lock and we take a break. In this match? Seriously?

Back
with Putski fighting back with some forearms but being taken down
again with a knee to the ribs. We hit the headlock again as this
match has already been going far longer than I would have expected it
to. If nothing else the announcers get to ignore the match even
longer than they would have in normal circumstances.

Putski
fights up again and starts his real comeback. He nails a nice middle
rope dropkick and a running clothesline as the announcers actually
pay attention here for a few moments. This match has to be ending
soon as it’s been going for over ten minutes already. I can’t
remember the last time a main event got that long. As I say that,
Putski misses the Polish Hammer and walks into the tombstone to give
Finlay the pin.

Rating:
D. We’re coming up on the
biggest show of the yere, there are four matches announced for the
show, and the first commercial break is during what is probably the
longest match Scott Putski ever had on TV. Who in the world thought
this was something we needed to see?

Recap
of Flair vs. Bischoff.

Here’s
Ernest Miller to run his mouth about the same stuff he always runs
his mouth about, but Santa Claus is in the aisle with presents.

Kaz
jumps Chavo at the bell but Chavo easily sends him into the corner
and stomps away to take over. Some forearms in the corner sets up an
armbar from Guerrero. Hayashi fights back with a quick dropkick but
misses a charge into the corner and gets taken down by the tornado
DDT for a fast pin.

Video
on Goldberg vs. Nash vs. Bigelow from last week.

Nash
comes out for the hard sell on Sunday, which isn’t something he’s all
that great at but hey, he’s booking the company so it must be the
right move. He talks about being World Champion for a year and
defending the title 197 times in that span. While Goldberg is out
doing movies and TV Guide, Nash has been getting ready. On Sunday,
he’ll become the man by beating the man (yes he acknowledges it’s a
Flair line).

Kanyon
tells Gene that Raven has been in therapy for years. Raven thinks
his mom was here last week to get fifteen minutes of fame like Judy
Bagwell and hits Kanyon for making fun of him. This brings in
Raven’s mom who finally convinces Scotty (Raven) to come home and get
some help.

Here’s
Bischoff to run his mouth. He says his usual stuff about Ric and
Flair’s family, but we cut to the back to see the Horsemen beating
down Scott Norton with a pipe. Flair heads to the ring and Bischoff
takes off. Ric says he’ll kill Bischoff if he gets his hands on him
tonight. The fans were WAY into this.

Video
on Page vs. Giant.

Wrath
shoves the luchador down to start and easily shoves him into the
corner for some knees to the ribs. Lizmark’s dropkick has no effect
as he gets caught in a side slam for two. A back elbow puts him on
the floor and Wrath follows him out to continue the beating. We hit
a chinlock for a few seconds before Wrath misses a charge into the
corner. Not that it matters as he comes back with a Rock Bottom and
the Meltdown for the pin.

Christmas
Nitro Girls.

Nitro
Party.

Eddie
rants a bit more about Rey screwing with the rest of the LWO. They
start fast with Rey monkey flipping Eddie into the ropes and
dropkicking him out to the floor. Rey tries a dive but flies into
the barricade to give Eddie control. Eddie whips him hard into the
steps before taking it back inside to yell at the fans. We hit the
Gory Stretch as Tenay tries to figure out why Eddie keeps Rey in the
LWO.

A
neckbreaker drops Rey again and Eddie puts on a modified Sharpshooter
while also pulling on Rey’s arm. Rey reverses a suplex to take Eddie
out to the floor but Eddie comes back with a top rope hurricanrana.
The crowd is almost dead here for some reason. We hit a camel clutch
with Eddie ripping a hole in Rey’s mask around the eye. The referee
makes him break so Eddie nails a great looking release German suplex.

Rey
comes back with a springboard headscissors to send Eddie to the floor
but a shot to the bad knee puts him right back down. Eddie wisely
goes to the knee and cranks on it with a basic hold. We hit an STF
from Eddie before taking a break. Back with Rey reversing an
inverted Gory Special into a cradle for two but Eddie reverses into
one of his own for the same.

The
brainbuster looks to set up the Frog Splash but Eddie has to roll
through when Rey gets to his feet. Mysterio avoids a charge in the
corner to make Eddie crotch himself against the steel. A big dive
sends Eddie into the barricade but he’s able to sidestep a
springboard missile dropkick back inside. They slug it out in the
corner with Rey taking over off a double leg Fameasser. A top rope
hurricanrana sends Eddie to the apron and a baseball slide into an
ankle scissors drags him to the floor.

The
announcers are actually talking about the Cruiserweight Title match
on Sunday if you can believe that. Back in and Eddie takes over with
a flapjack and a stiff powerbomb for two. A second attempt is
countered and another headscissors gets two on Guerrero. The referee
is knocked to the floor and here’s the bodyguard to the apron. Rey
avoids a dropkick to send the guard to the floor as well but here’s
Kidman on the apron. He loads up a forearm on Eddie but hits
Mysterio by mistake, giving Guerrero the pin.

Rating:
B. This is one of those
pairings that is going to work no matter what they’re doing together.
It even worked here here
where they slowed things down a bit due to Eddie wanting to hurt Rey
for all the problems Mysterio has caused and
Mysterio having to fight back with whatever leverage move he can. On
top of that we get some build for Sunday. Good stuff here.

Here’s
Scott Steiner to brag about being in the state of St. Louis,
Missouri. He’s here to recruit Mark McGwire to the NWO and brings
out….Bagwell dressed as McGwire. I think you can figure out this
one for yourselves. Bagwell says he loves the NWO, takes some andro
(a then legal substance that McGwire took in the year he broke the
single season home run record) and says he’d be nothing without it.
Steiner burns the Cardinals hat and jersey while insulting the city.
Total filler.

Oh….joy.
Iaukea goes right after Smiley to start and grabs a rollup for two.
Norman comes back with an elbow and it’s time to dance! The Prince
rakes his eye and hits Norman rather low before getting two off
something resembling an Angle Slam. Not that it matters as Norman
comes back with the crossface chicken wing for the fast submission.
Nothing much here.

Windham
takes over with chops in the corner followed by a suplex but here’s
Flair before things go too far.

Ric
fires away chops of his own and knees Windham low to put him down.
Barry is thrown to the floor and into the barricade before another
low blow puts him down again. Ric goes after the eyes and hits
Windham low two more times. He fishhooks Barry’s mouth and hits him
in the head before taking it back inside. Flair loads up Shattered
Dreams but has to deal with Vincent. This brings out Arn Anderson to
help out and stomp Vincent to pieces. Benoit and Malenko stop Horace
and Adams and they all brawl to the back. Security mace and cuff
Benoit and Malenko but leave the NWO guys alone.

Back
in the arena Flair is all fired up and has a mic. He rants (would
you expect anything else?) about Bischoff trying to break his career
and life, but then one day Flair’s son Reid asked why Flair didn’t
just beat Bischoff up and wrestle again. This brings out Bischoff
who is acting apologetic, causing Anderson to almost have to hold
Flair back. Security stops Flair and handcuffs him, but Flair still
promises to kill Bischoff on Sunday. The heart attack stuff was
barely mentioned at all here.

I
don’t see this being very competitive. Booker nails a quick forearm
to start but eats a spin kick. Flynn hits a knee and elbow, only to
walk into the ax kick. That modified spinebuster sets up the
Spinarooni and the missile dropkick is enough to pin Jerry in less
than two minutes.

Kaos
doesn’t have his title belt with him. Seriously, why put it on him
in the first place? Luger hiptosses him down to start but walks into
a hard slam and some posing from Kenny. Back up and Luger grabs a
slam of his own, only to be raked in the eyes. Kenny hammers away
with basic offense before a middle rope legdrop gets two. Tony
finally mentions that Kaos is half of the Tag Team Champions as Luger
makes his comeback with the usual stuff. Rage comes out and
distracts Rage, which makes absolutely no difference as Luger was
about to Rack him anyway for the submission.

Rating:
D. They don’t even remember to
bring the title belt out while the jobber champion is getting
squashed. There’s so much wrong with that statement that I don’t
even know where to start. For the life of me I do not understand the
thinking behind putting the title on Kaos. I could probably come up
with two dozen people that would make more sense and be a better
option than he was and somehow that’s not an exaggeration

High
Voltage argues post match. Again, why in the world did Kaos need to
be a Tag Team Champion?

Konnan
is defending so we get to see part of his rap video. Before the
match we’ve got Disco Inferno coming out and warning Konnan that
Wright is crazy. Konnan says get out of his face before being taken
down by Wright with an arm wringer. That goes nowhere so they trade
some rollups for two each, followed by armdrags from Konnan and a
break.

Back
with Wright in control and working on the leg. That goes nowhere so
Konnan is sent to the floor, only to come back in and throw Wright to
the floor. Back up and Konnan hits the rolling clothesline and the
low dropkick as the fans are really bored with the match. The X
Factor sets up the Tequila Sunrise to retain Konnan’s title.

Rating:
D-. This was just bad as the
two didn’t connect at all. Wright didn’t do any of the interesting
stuff he was capable of doing and Konnan was keeping it in cruise
control the entire match here. Also I don’ think the fans bought the
idea that the title was going to change this close to Starrcade.

Wright
snaps post match and pounds on various things with a chair ala Chris
Jericho right before he turned heel a year and a half or so back.
Speaking of which, here’s Jericho to blast Konnan in the back of the
head with the TV Title. He puts the belt on Konnan’s head for the
Lionsault and poses over top of him. “ARRIBA LOS JERICHOS!”

Here’s
Disco Inferno in a Wolfpack shirt to call out any member of the Black
and White. “Maybe Horace?” That’s not quite who he gets.

Giant
no sells everything Disco tries to start and knocks him to the mat
with a big right hand. Disco keeps trying to fire away to even less
effect before Giant headbutts him down with ease. The Chartbuster is
thrown away and a chokeslam off the top gives Giant the easy pin.

Post
match Giant calls out Page, who will be a dead man at Starrcade.
Page is in the crowd, scum is discussed and that’s about it.

Non-title
of course. The entrances combine to take nearly four minutes so we
barely have any time left. A lockup goes nowhere so Hall grabs the
arm for the driving shoulders. Goldberg puts him down with a
fireman’s carry and a shove to put Hall on the mat. Nash comes out
to the ring as Goldberg counters a slam into a powerslam. Goldberg
is distracted by the shine of Nash’s hair, allowing Scott to jump in
from behind. The fall away slam has no effect and there’s the spear,
but Nash pulls Hall to the floor as Bigelow comes in to jump Goldberg
as the show goes off the air.

Overall
Rating: D. What in the world
was that supposed to be? It wasn’t a go home show and it wasn’t a
regular episode of Nitro. Just what was this supposed to be? The
show ends with an attack by someone not even on the card on Sunday?
There are still four matches announced for Starrcade and one of them
should be a five minute squash.

There’s
no Thunder on Thursday due to Christmas Eve so this was their final
chance (save for Saturday Night) to get people to care. I have no
idea what this show accomplished, other than a very good Mysterio vs.
Guerrero match. Starrcade has the potential to be an absolute bomb
and I don’t expect much more at this point.

Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6