Superstar Sleeze

Ric Flair vs Brian Pillman - WCW Nitro 9/18/95 Flair vs Pillman from 1990 or 1991, this is not, but this is still a lot of fun. Like most Nitro matches thus far the primary directive seems to be squeeze as much action in as possible and never let the tempo die down. The 1990 and 1991 version of this pairing has more time to breathe and they really build both matches into Free TV classics that everyone should see. What keeps this match on right side of good and the second best Nitro match thus far is the intensity. The way they exchange the chops and the strikes feels like a stand & bang, knock down drag out fight. It is not this Fighting Spirit strike exchange bullshit. It feels like they both want to destroy each other. Flair wants to come off the top so bad in this match. He is exerting the full court press. He gets caught with Pillman's anti-air dropkick. Pillman tries to go after the arm, but Flair is just relentless and just comes roaring back overwhelming him with chops. It just feels like a brawl from beginning to end. This might be the most effective use of the Figure-4 since Flair became main eventer. Belly 2 Back Suplex. Figure-4 tap out! Babyface Flair is such a different beast than heel Flair. I liked getting to see the inverse roles here of Flair vs Pillman. The promo before the match was also really good. How Arn should have settled the family dispute within the family and not brought in an outsider. Babyface Flair is always a treat and he was definitely the MVP of Nitro #3, great promo and match. *** 1/4

I enjoyed the beach attack by Kevin Sullivan on the Macho Man while he is doing a bench press. It looked vicious and heated. Flair was great calling him The Devil. Saying he walks his own path. The Devil has lost it. This is clearly a red herring to lull people into a false sense of security that Flair might be turning babyface. Savage/Luger segment which is under 5 minutes is killer. We need to get back to all promos in the Ring need to be done by an interviewer who will keep people in check. 15-20 minute promo needs to die. We succinctly understand that Macho Man does not trust anyone besides Hulk Hogan. He doesn’t need Flair’s help. Constructive criticism you Hulk Hogan are a horrible judge of character is a great line. He predicts Luger, Sting and Jimmy Hart will be in Dungeon soon. I am surprised they are foreshadowing Jimmy I thought that was supposed to be a surprise. The Dungeon is just the proto-NWO with how it is booked. Luger says he is at least upfront that his only focus is the World Title doesn’t Macho Man have that aspiration too? Macho Man admits to it and now seeds of doubt are being down everyone. We almost get a Savage/Luger match but we are getting a Savage/Sullivan match next week due to the attack and wanting to cut the head off the snake. Just to capture this here, no Hogan this week. He had his head twisted off his shoulders by The Giant at Fall Brawl as well as his Hog destroyed by Giant’s Monster Truck. Giant makes his Nitro debut at the beginning of the show doing an interview with Sullivan. Giant is definitely prone to overacting here but the angle is so campy it kinda works honestly. Thought the booking of Nitro 3 was really good even though the opening two matches were kinda lame. The Flair/Pillman main event was not as good as 1990 or even 1991 but I would say it was second best Nitro match so far, pretty fun stuff!

WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs American Males - WCW Nitro 9/18/95 This is supposed to be the Males vs Blue Bloods in a midcard tag match but the newly minted Harlem Heat having defeated the Studd Stable the night before beat up the Blue Bloods. I kinda get Harlem Heat’s point they are the new Tag Champions and as new Champs they want air time on the newest, hottest show in wrestling to increase their exposure. I dig the motivation. Putting the titles on the lines because they are arrogant based on the win last night and they think pretty boy Males are chumps makes sense. This match more exists to continue the thread that anything can happen on Nitro where the newly minted champs get upset the next night by heavy underdogs. I wish today they did more short reigns. This is so refreshing. The match is meh. If it was not for Booker T’s killer Axe Kick and almost decapitating Riggs with most vicious Harlem Sidekick of all time this was not be memorable. Bagwell has a milquetoast hot tag. Sherri and the Colonel do their weird romance that seemingly lasts forever. This distracts Harlem Heat long enough to have Bagwell shift his weight on a slam to get the upset victory! Cool for Booker’s two moves and a necessary shock title change to make you believe anything can happen on Nitro. But still just meh.

Paul Orndorff vs Johnny B. Badd - WCW Nitro 9/18/95 WOW! I am totally the opposite of everyone else. I thought music was lame and entrance with mirror was meh. Pushing Orndorff late 95 when you’re the edgy product just felt like it ran opposite of everything they were doing in the main event. On top of that, this was a bad match. The first really bad match on Nitro. Basic Orndorff clobbering to start. The one redeeming quality was they both kept missing high risk moves which at least put over they were high risk. Wonderful misses a top rope splash. Badd’s comeback with the punches and clotheslines is so…bad! I have seen the Pillman/Badd match from the night before it is awesome. Johnny B. Badd looked like he never wrestled before here. They tussle over piledrivers. Orndorff reverses a sunset flip and sits down to win. Where’s Sabu?!? Where’s Eddie?!? This sucked.

Randy Savage vs Scott Norton - WCW Nitro 9/11/95 Norton is someone who want to like because I love his look and he jut looks like he should be an all-time great power wrestler but he always leaves me wanting more. Classic Savage babyface formula match. Norton cuts him off right at entrance and whoops ass. Savage sells well. I like the double axe handles as hopefully spots not the hip toss and clothesline. Norton was leaving his feet too easily. Norton’s offense looked killer: powerslam, flying shoulder tackle, the power bomb! The offensive onslaught was there. The top rope Orton DDT! Great shit! The layout just has a ceiling. The finish was fun. Savage sends Norton into Avalanche and Avalanche lays on top of Norton’s legs leaving him prone to the Macho Elbow. Ignoring the legality that was a fun finish. Norton’s offense and Savage’s selling were a great mix and a fun finish but ultimately it is just good because of the layout. ***

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger - WCW NItro 9/11/95 Second Nitro and this has a huge fight feel! Luger looks like a million bucks. Not too much meat on the bone in this match. They give you enough that doesn’t feel like a ripoff. Luger more than the Warrior for me personally is the dream match for Hogan. This is Arnold vs Sylvester brutha. One thing that’s interesting even though the crowd is majority pro-Hogan to the point where Bischoff could claim absolute victory for the Hulkster by the crowd he claims it is a 50/50 split. He is really trying to push the shades of grey. Babyface Vs babyface clash of the titans symmetry. Each no-selling the other’s suplex was awesome. Hogan misses a charge and a Luger powerslam. He is calling for the Rack!!! LUGER RACKS HOGAN!!! The Hulkster withstands the pain long enough that Luger has to relinquish. Hogan Hulk-Ups after the pin fall attempt. Basic Hulk Up and the Dungeon attacks so we don’t know if Luger would kick out or not. It casts enough doubt in people’s head. Savage and Sting make the save BUT the Dungeon never touch Luger. The resulting brouhaha with Mean Gene whether Luger’s blood is running red & yellow or if he is Dungeon 4 Life! Is great pro wrestling theatre. I love how all four stay true to their characters and their motivations. Sting wants to win at Wargames and he has been friends with Luger for almost ten years. Savage is a paranoid lunatic and doesn’t want to be stabbed in the back. The uncertainty is killing the Hulkster and he has to just know one way or the other. Luger is willing to help them out if he gets another title shot down the line. It is genius. This is how pro wrestling should be.

WCW US Champion Sting vs VK Wallstreet - WCW Nitro 9/11/95 I love the early Nitro booking: Sabu and Wallstreet get introduced last week and now have matches on Nitro. Wallstreet has inexplicably changed his name to VK as a potshot to Vince. This is the famous match where Bischoff gives a way the result of the main event of the competing RAW saying Shawn Michaels beats the big guy with three superkicks. Another sub-5 minute match that is heavy on action, light on narrative. Liked Rotundo busting out the fireman's carry early. Sting was throwing great punches and dropkicks. Wallstreet sent Sting crashing to the floor. Wallstreet was a little out of place for big Sting Slingshot Splash, BUT Wallstreet sells it as a glancing blow. Sting makes a comeback with a clothesline, a Stinger Splash and a top rope crossbody to polish off Wallstreet. Sabu/Wright was more entertaining in a car crash way, but this was normal US heavyweight wrestling.

Sabu vs Alex Wright - WCW Nitro 9/11/95 I have seen this match before, but Sabu in WCW always surprises me. They packed a shit ton in 4 minutes. These Nitro matches are the precursor to 21st Century wrestling except people go way too long now. Sabu is springing off ropes and jumping off chairs. Not to be outdone, Wright hits a wicked bodyslam on Sabu on the floor and a great missile dropkick and a big splash over the top to floor. He even gets a great German Suplex. Wright looked just as good as Sabu here. Sabu just had the cooler look. I was a big Alex Wright fan when I was a kid. Loved the dance. Still bust it out from time to time. Sabu hits a victory roll for the top for the win. After the match he keeps beating up Wright and dives off the top through Wright and a table. It was awkward and weird because it was 1995. The ref reversed his decision awarding the match to Wright via DQ to boos. It keeping with the directive, keep it short, sweet and action-packed. Both guys looked great. Sabu looked and felt wicked unique and Wright was a great white meat babyface.

Flair was a ton of fun in this. His promo about how Double A is now in the hotel room calling his wife and kid when he used to go out partying and womanizing with Flair is great heel schtick. Luger looks killer and Flair lets us know that Luger is all man, baby. Flair fawning is great. Luger says some things never change and he says Flair is just too much. Flair says he is going to stay too much. Amen, brutha.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW Nitro 9/4/95 The main event of the first Nitro and probably the best possible main event they could have conjured up with. Having Hulk Hogan defend the WCW World Title in the main event of the first Nitro, instantly made Nitro feel must-see. Big Bubba Rogers who was #3-#5 Heel of the year for WCW so he was the perfect challenger with enough credibility to garner interest, but not as marquee as Flair or Giant which worthy as a PPV main event. Similar to the Liger/Pillman and Sting/Flair match, this felt like the hyper-compressed version of your typical Hogan match. Typical Hogan Clash of the Titans start with headlocks, test of strength and shouldertackles. Mongo saying Hogan is too much of a technician to get bested by the brawler, Bubba, while Hogan is slamming Rogers' head into the top turnbuckle is rich. The ref keeps breaking it Hogan's fists of fury. Rogers uses those breaks to take over with some great fists. Both these guys arent afraid of throwing a punch and there were a lot of good punches in this. Bubba goes for his customary slide out and punch, but Jimmy Hart gets in his way. Hogan uses the distraction plus Jimmy Hart's coat to beat up Rogers some more. Again it is more fisticuffs. Bubba gets the Bossman Slam out of nowhere and that leads to Hulk-Up! You know the drill 1-2-3. The Hulk-Up lives and dies by the nearfall preceding it. The Bossman Slam just had no heat to it. Usually Hogan sells a lot more, but I think there was directive to wrestle uptempo and just keep kicking ass. Usually the Hogan formula will peak harder through investment of Hogan's selling, but they opted for action instead. People who say Hogan wrestles slow always smacks me as strange. He is a very good uptempo wrestler. I am surprised they didnt just throw Rogers into the Dungeon of Doom for the hell of it to add some heat to this match and so Kevin Sullivan would be on the outside I am shocked by how little they brought up the Fall Brawl main event. This really felt like a big reset button on the company and we were now in Nitro-verse. The Dungeon (Kamala, Meng, Zodiac & Shark) attack, BUT LEX FUCKING LUGER SAVES! He goes from saving Diesel in the main event of Summerslam from Mo to saving Hogan from these Oddities. The Luger and Hogan promo is expertly done. It is pitch perfect. Luger feels immediately like a huge deal and he has not felt this hot since July 4, 1993. They set up a huge main event of Hogan vs Luger for the next week which will be the first week head to head with RAW. Great booking. The match was average.

WCW United States Champion Sting vs Ric Flair - WCW Nitro 9/4/95 I really enjoyed this match. They pushed the tempo but they still stayed true to their characters. Yes, it is the hyper-compressed version of Sting vs Flair, but still really good. I think they blew Pillman/Liger out of water in terms of workrate both in highspots and tempo. Sting was a No-Selling machine in this match. I will make my case again why I love No-Selling, which is a form of selling. He is taking the best Flair can dish out: chops, punches and suplexes and he is hulking up through them. He is letting you know they hurt, but he is muscling through it. To steal a page from the Matt D paradigm of 2025, the No-Sell builds the anticipation for the payoff. For the babyface, the valiant hero, to whoop some fucking chickenshit ass. If Sting does not no-sell, the excitement level for the payoff (his move) goes way down. This is a classic Flair match. It is a lot of press slams and getting his ass kicked, but what makes Flair so good is how he makes the babyface earn it and how he sells it. He worked all the tried and true Flair shit in: crowding in the corner, short knee, work on the outside, eye poke, the chop block. The babyface has to fight through that to earn his offense. The way Flair sells all of Sting's offense invites the crowd to egg it on. This is not someone seeking sympathy, it is someone you point and jeer. It is brilliant. Heel selling is much harder than babyface selling. There is a lot of fun 80s spots to in this like the crossbody that sends both men over the top rope to the floor and the bridge out into the backslide. It is cliff notes version of Flair and Sting. Luger's appearance is deservedly the most famous part of the first Nitro and I think it was executed to perfection. Arn Anderson coming out was something I forgot. It was good shades of gray booking how he distracted Sting but ultimately got into a brawl with Flair. The chop block into the figure-4 was a great spot. The DQ finish was classic WCW as you werent quite sure what happened, but the upshot was AA and Flair were brawling to add heat to the Fall Brawl match. One thing that is surprising is how little they were hyping Fall Brawl on this show. It felt like a giant reset button was pressed on the promotion. It just feels so cool and so hot. The Scott Norton surprise appearance and the Macho Man coming out to get his face was booked so much more organically than how they present this type of stuff today. Impromptu matches nowadays are such foregone conclusions here they treat it as far more chaotic and thus it feels like a bigger deal. I enjoyed this match a lot, but ultimately it is not as good as an 80s Flair match because it is so damn compressed but it is entertaining and breezy. *** 1/2

So interesting even though I had seen this episode before I forgot that they had a highlight package for Sabu and a introductory promo from Michael Wallstreet. Talk about two diametrically opposed wrestlers. Efficiency of Nitro is great, you have Luger surprise return, Norton's big interruption to give Savage something to do on the first Nitro and Sabu and Wallstreet are coming. They do all this plus have three matches in 45 MINUTES!!! Why cant we do that anymore?!?!?

I am going to the Mall of America in a couple weeks, I want to find where Pastamania and where the original Nitro was held. The flow of the first Nitro is efficient. First match is the juniors with all the cool workrate high spots, now the World Champion Hulk Hogan, the most famous wrestler talks and we are flowing into Flair vs Sting which is a match between 2 of the 4 biggest wrestlers in the company. Love the efficiency. Hogan saying he is lean and mean from eating Pastamania is hilarious.

Brian Pillman vs Jushin Thunder Liger - WCW Nitro 9/4/95 After a lot of hemming and hawing, I am pulling the trigger, I am going to go through all the Nitros of 1995. I just love this period too much not to do it and I have been doing all the big PPV matches, I am might as well do it. I am going to be briefer in my reviews to try to make this take up less time. I have seen all the Nitros from the beginning through November, may be even December. I was surprised how disappointing this was. Even though their SuperBrawl II match is a stone cold classic. It is a far cry from that. It is not the couple botches, which never really bother me, it is how stilted it is. They are both waiting a beat too long in the match and it really takes you out of the match. It feels more like dress rehearsal of the match they wanted to have. These are complaints I often levy at today's wrestling, but you can see the same problems here in 1995. Today's wrestling is a weird mix of New Japan Juniors, All Japan Heavies and Lucha. It is not too surprising you can see the influences here in this particular match, but also the pitfalls of the style that would ultimately rule professional wrestling. It was clear the directive from Bischoff was to hit a lot of high spots. They did that. There was zero flow or connective tissue between the high spots, but there were a lot of high spots. I wouldnt even say they pushed the tempo. It was kinda slow honestly. Flair/Sting in the next match blew them away in tempo. I dont think this was necessarily a Pillman which was alluded to on commentary and on this forum because Pillman had a very strong, explosive match with Johnny B. Badd match a couple weeks later. I think this was interactive effect between both on this night This match would look great on a highlight package. You take all the high spots on the outside, the ground-to-air dropick by Pillman, the powerbomb by Liger, this thing would look great. As a match, it is just alright. At the same time, it is a great match to open Nitro. Jushin Liger is a visually impressive wrestler. If you are curious about it or channel surfing, you would be like who is the dude with horns and him and Pillman busted out a lot of stuff you wouldnt see in WWF outside of Shawn Michaels or 1-2-3 Kid. It served its purpose even if didnt hold up well.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ric Flair - WCW Nitro 12/25/95 Couldn’t fall asleep due to work stress so I threw on this episode of Nitro. This was a very good match and worth watching. Luger beat Riggs in a match where Riggs got way more offense than I expected. Nice Rack finish. Sting beat Big Bubba in a condensed version of their two PPV matches from this year. Sting won with a cradle hardly a decisive victory. Malenko had a good showing against Jerry Lynn under a hood. Some promos pushing the Sting/Luger and the seeds of the Dungeon/Horsemen being planted. Jimmy Hart will be in Flair’s corner. These original one hour Nitro’s are so breezy a much better format than today’s TV wrestling. I liked this more than their Starrcade match. They have exited the Summer of 95 blood feud matches and are now in Championship wrestling mode. I thought this was a really well-laid out and executed match. Savage’s babyface shine as is customary is short but sweet. Flair goes for teh Rolling Knee too early and Savage drags him out and posts him. Savage applies the Figure-4 for a feel-good spot. This is a very 80s Flair match with a lot of trappings from there. They tease Flair kicking up his leg to ballshot Savage but it doesn’t happen. Flair goes for his own Figure-4 but Macho Man reverses into a cradle. Savage is overzealous in clamping down on Flair leaves himself open to the short knee on the ref break. The Short Knee is 80s Flair at his finest as is dumping his opponent on the outside and consolidating his Advantage out there. Good arm work especially the hammerlock, half Nelson cover with the feet on the ropes. Savage was the master of peppering in those stiff jabs and creating hope spots not with high spots but just his Tasmanian Devil energy. The Flair work in response is really good from the leg work to Figure-4 to getting out the way of a double axe handle on the floor, to the trick knee ball shot on a Savage sleeper to an eye poke. Flair was varying his work some was offensive like the arm & knee work, some was using environment using the corner and the floor, some was dirty cheating the ballshot and the eye poke. This was one of the most classic Flair matches. This is an excellent example of why Flair is better when he can go 20-30 minutes because he has a great variety of transitions that can keep a match entertaining. Savage is a great opponent for him because Savage can sell extremely well, big charisma and Savage is scrappy and brings out that dog in him. Savage starts to get things going after a Flair attempted sleeper and a double axe handle from the top. Savage puts his hands on Jimmy Hart and this draws out Lex Luger. Sting is out but whose side is he on?!? If you watched WCW a lot around this time you know this was a standard call because they were threatening to turn everyone heel. The Heenan call at Bash 96 seems weird to us but it made sense in the context of 95-96 WCW. Flair attacks Sting before we can find out. Savage and Sting dump the heels and go back to back. Shoving and jawing match ensues. This is a million times better than the million pull apart brawls we see each week. The tension of two babyfaces shoving and jawing is significantly more alluring than tepid brawling. The booking was trying to get you to believe it would be Savage/Sting at the PPV in two days because they end in the Ring together, they just did Savage/Flair on Nitro and there has been ~4 Savage/Luger matches in the last three months. So running the Flair/Savage match two nights before Starrcade was to throw you off the scent. Anyways I thought this was better than Starrcade match and if they got double time it could be been a classic. *** 1/2

Fast forwarded to the Final Nine: Hogan, Savage, Sting, Luger, Giant, Flair, Double A, OMG and Eddie Guerrero. Surprised about OMG and Eddie Guerrero but both would get the US Title within the year so there were some plans for them. Boring Battle Royale Action for the most part. Flair & Anderson eliminations were well-done. Hogan dumps Giant, Luger and Sting simultaneously but gets pulled under the Bottom by The Giant. Savage dumps OMG and wins. Hogan throws a justified temper tantrum but it is still a tantrum. This would work a lot better if someone who was ready to turn heel like Luger was in Hogan’s position OR if someone like Flair was in Savage’s position so you could set up Hogan vs chickenshit heel. I guess the idea is you’re teasing Hogan:Savage but they don’t do it so what’s the point. Weird finish, bad battle royale.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ric Flair - WCW Starrcade 95 This is why you should never let someone else blade for you. After the Megaphone shot, Savage futzes with something and then just pounces on Flair’s head and Flair comes up with a Five Alarm Bladejob. That was fucking crazy! Why didn’t Flair just do it himself? Short main event but both had already wrestled on the night. Not one of their classics but still an energetic affair. Savage is nursing an arm injury like he is DDP with his ribs in 1997. Still Savage is all gas, no brakes. Backslide right out the gate let’s you know he wants to win. These are some of the best Macho punches ever. Really awesome stinging jabs. Flair sells them so well. Flair catches Savage in the breadbasket as he is coming off the top. Flair heat segment on the outside is good shit. Heavy blows. Jimmy Hart is with Flair now who the fuck knows lol and he gets a lick in. Flair works the arm like a champ. Savage mounts his comeback with more great punches and a clothesline. The finish is classic 90s but it is a bit too chaotic to really land. As mentioned above the Megaphone gets involved with Savage wresting control of it and then blading Flair and nearly killing him. BIG ELBOW! Here Comes The Horsemen! Savage throws Pillman into Benoit. Double A clocks Savage with a loaded fist and Flair wins his title in anti-climatic. All for some chicanery late in a match but this felt anti-climatic. Flair is clearly fucked up and they cancel the interview so he can get help. Also Mr. Wonderful of all people in a neck brace had sauntered out mid-match because Horsemen had broke his neck. Orndorff getting a main event push in late 1995 is insane. I assume it just got dropped. It is Flair vs Savage everything is scrappy, close quartered fisticuffs and snug work. The finish and length leave something to be desired but it is still good. ***

Ric Flair vs Sting vs Lex Luger - WCW Starrcade 1995 I normally skip triple threats but these three a cool threesome with their 8 year history but this is during the period when the three way was still being innovated. This is a singles match with one man on the apron who can be tagged in. Being on the outside allows you to rest and recuperate but also you can’t win the match. The funniest part of the match is Dusty has never heard of playing possum and goes on a ridiculous rant and The Brain is beside himself that he has never heard of playing possum. This is my first time reviewing a match over 20 minutes in length in a long time so breaking it in half. Work has been pretty light for a change this week. Flair and Sting start us off and go a good 10-ish minutes. It is not as good as the WWIII match I just watched but still solid. Sting steamrolls Flair to start. Flair slows things down with a hammerlock and some really good blows. Flair’s punch is so underrated. Sting no-sells and looks great against Flair. He does the All Japan no sell on the outside against the railing to steamroll Flair. Sting looks like there is no stopping him until he misses a dropkick and Flair takes over. Lots of cocky shit from Flair and taunting Luger. Sting no-sells a Flair suplex and the rout is back on. SUPERPLEX! Luger threatens to break it up. Sting is like what the hell man and Luger is like well I am not just going to let you win. Flair knocks Sting into Luger which is not wise as Luger has had 10minutes to rest. Luger transforms into 1988 Luger and immediately hits Flair with a FLEX to put him on his ass. I am a sucker for that spot. Luger Caveman Carries Flair back in the Ring. It get a little clunky. Flair is able to pinball off Luger to get them back on track. Another press slam it is 90s Flair he loves it. Flair is able to chop block the knee and works it over. Love chair smash on the knee. Lots of great knee work by Flair here. Back to watching the match. Flair hits a great blow to the hammies or was it the balls? The Figure-4 was worked great. The big flex by Lex was electric. Suplex by Luger and then Press Slam. The Package is rolling. Flair opts to tag out. Will that be wise? The match had been pretty good but it nosedives here. Luger and Sting have pretty bad chemistry and look actively lost at times. I would have gone with babyface vs babyface wrestling lots of symmetry before Luger starts to cheat. Neither guy knows how to chain wrestle so they opt for a lot of clubbering and you can hear the crowd dying. Luger heels way too quickly. He is stepping on Sting’s throat almost immediately. Sting gets it going but eats knees on a Vaderbomb and when Luger is in the ropes on Scorpion Deathlock, Luger hits him in the nuts. Inverted Atomic Drop by Total Package feel the testicular psychology. Love Sting intentionally not whipping Luger into Flair’s corner. Stinger Splash! Misses the second one. LUGER RACKS THE STINGER! Sting wipes out the ref. Flair chop blocks Luger! I love when Lugers knee gives out in the Rack so I loved that spot. He sends both packing to the outside. They both get counted out and Flair wins?!? Both legal men getting counted out feels like it should be ruled a double count out but it is WCW so who the fuck knows. Clearly they wanted Flair to win but they wanted to protect Stinger and Luger from eating a fall. So as far as nonsensicalWCW finishes go this one isn’t so bad. It is essentially three separate matches. Flair/Luger was my favorite but just for the heat and finish. Flair/Sting was good start to finish. Sting/Luger drags this down. It was like *** 1/4-1/2 but let’s go a flat ***. At almost 30 minutes dont think I need to watch this again.

Randy Savage vs Lex Luger - WCW World War III 1995 At the outset of the show, Hogan makes a big deal out of saying the Observer has it all wrong that Savage is not injured and he burns an Observer on air saying "Observe this", brutha and "Internet has got the scoops". It would be funny if Randy Savage just won the World Title, injured to spite Meltzer. 30 years later Bischoff is still railing against Meltzer. Lexy Flexy is out with Jimmy Hart as he is Dungeon of Doom 4 Life, brutha, but he is still friends with Sting. Hogan/Macho trust Sting and say Sting can have his deal with Luger. Sting & Luger are teaming up the next night on Nitro. I really dig that the booking for WCW at this time. All six main eventers, which means there are 15 unique relationships are developing those unique relationships and they can leverage them in different ways. Very cool matrix booking. Savage is out with a massive bandage on his arm is decidedly not healthy. Even though this match is about the same length as the Halloween Havoc match, I did think this one was better, but still left a lot on the table. Presumably, they would have gotten a chance to go longer if Savage was not injured. These two have great chemistry together. I know there is one Nitro match from 1995 I like between these two, plus I like their Souled Out 1998 main event match together. Savage is out for blood. Even though he is injured, he comes out the gate at a million miles per hour and is just kicking ass. He throttles Luger. It is really fierce and ferocious. It is a full court press. He is using the hard parts of his body and the hard parts of the ring. He is in pure Tasmanian Devil form and Luger it totally overwhelmed. Usually Savage likes to go right to heat so it was refreshing to see him work this blood-feud-esque shine. Nice Boston Crab which you dont always see from him. Big Elbow and it looks like Total Package just got squashed. However, the Mouth of South wont let Luger die an easy death. Savage goes to throw Luger into Hart, but Hart moves and Luger careens to the floor. Luger is able to reverse an Irish Whip and whip Savage into the ring apron of a different ring (three rings for the 3-ring Battle Royale). Savage takes a gnarly bump and sells it like a million bucks. Luger RACKS the Macho Man on the floor. Then throws him back in the ring. Slaps on a armbar/hammerlock and Savage passes out from the pain, BUT DONT WORRY GUYS HE IS TOTALLY HEALTHY. Sting comes out and gets Luger to relinquish the hold apparently Luger was the one who talked sense into Sting to relinquish the hold on Flair on Nitro. Again it is great shades of grey booking, on paper, it sounds all fine and dandy for Hogan/Savage to let Sting maintain his friendship with Luger, but if Luger keeps pulling this shit will this cause a Hogan/Savage vs Sting/Luger feud or will Sting have to say enough is enough cut out his toxic friend. There is a lot of interesting paths they can go. I enjoyed this match even though it is short. They have good chemistry. Savage was ferocious to start, total Tasmanian Devil. The Big Elbow was a good visual fall for Macho Man. Good transition for Luger followed by the Torture Rack and armbar submission. It was a very WCW moment for Hogan to grandstand that Savage is 100% and they run a finish on that same night that is directly counter to that promo. You would think someone would put 2 and 2 together. Good little match. ***

Ric Flair vs Sting - World War III 1995 The grudge match following the infamous Ric Flair turn at Halloween Havoc, great match and great angle. Is this match they should have run after that angle? No. It is a very good Greatest Hits version of their matches at around 15 minutes which makes for an entertaining experience even if it is not congruent with the storyline at the time. Pretty strong Sting shine here. There is A LOT of Gorilla Press Slams. For Flair detractors, I am sure that will get long in the tooth for them. Flair tries an eyepoke to set up the chops and big heavy blows. Flair's strikes always look great. Sting comes roaring back. Pretty standard Sting stuff. Sting fighting through Flair's offense with standard back fists and kicks looked great. All press slams were good. Flair bailing to the various rings (there were three because of the 3-ring Battle Royale) and Sting kicking his ass was good. I really liked the transition to heat as Sting crashes and burns on a Stinger Splash onto the steel railing. When Sting tries to mount a comeback, Flair ballshots him. I love that as a 1-2 punch to consolidate his advantage. The pro-Flair contingent would be very happy to see this heat segment. It is one of Flair's strongest of the 90s. He really works the leg of Sting well. A good variety of attacks to the leg, good tempo, well-struck and well-sold by Sting. Really liked the chop block. Great heat on the Figure-4. Loved Sting's reaction to being slapped and hulking up through the Figure-4. Things get desperate for Flair as he shove Nick Patrick who shoves him back down to a big pop. Then it is pretty much all Sting as he stalks him into a new ring and the Press Slams abound. Great superplex and the Scorpion Deathlock finishes it. Sting does relinquish the hold even though a big deal was made that was he was going to keep it on forever. Like I said it was a Greatest Hits of Flair vs Sting. I thought Flair's heat segment makes this stand out and puts it into very good category. I liked the Sting finish stretch in the sense he strung about 4-5 impressive moves together to clinch a victory. I think I would have liked 1-2 wrinkles thrown in there to take the match to the next level, but this still was a very good match. Flair has a very good, under the radar 1995. *** 3/4

Hogan sheds the black and returns to red & yellow, brutha. He vows never to return to the dark side, but within an year he would be wearing black & white, brutha. The Observer potshot followed by the internet has the scoops is pretty funny. I wonder if Giant was supposed to win and they switched it to an injured Savage to make a point. Savage was clearly injured at this point, but they make a big deal he is not even though injury plays a big role in his subsequent match with Luger. The whole the Internet has the scoops in 1995 is pretty damn funny. Weird segment. 30 years later Bischoff is still railing against Meltzer.

Lex Luger vs Randy Savage - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 A nothing burger of a match. It was bad, but there was not much meat on the bone at only 5 minutes. Each man won a match over Dungeon of Doom earlier in the night in order to make this match happen. Savage defeated the Zodiac in under two minutes. Luger had a long, ~13 minute match, but was about to lose when Sullivan hit him to trigger a DQ and make this match happen. Luger would reveal that he was Dungeon of Doom 4 Life at the end of the show when he RACKED Hogan and Savage to end the show. At this point, this was still nominally face vs face. Typical Savage babyface performance as we go into heat quickly. It is a pretty scrappy match. Lots of short punches, snug strikes and throwing your opponent into hard objects. Savage blocks Luger sending him into the railing and in turn he sends the Package into the railing. Savage Axe Bomber looked sick. Jimmy Hart is out and it is also not known that he is Dungeon of Doom 4 Life either at this point. Luger knocks heads with Jimmy Hart on the apron and leads to the Macho Man elbow for the win. They were on pace for a good match. They were working snug, dirty and ugly. The Jimmy Hart shit was dumb and convoluted. It only seemed to exist to throw people off the scent of Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger, but there was no sus on Jimmy Hart so it was just dumb. Wish they got 5-10 more minutes.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs The Giant - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 This match's reputation is more based on the dumbass Monster Truck angle and the debut of the YET-AY~! Thanks to Tony Schiavone, I pronounce it as Yeh-TAY in real life and makes me look like dumbass. The first time my wife heard me say it, she thought I was fucking dumb, but now she thinks it is funny. The match itself is a lot better than people give it credit BUT the dumbass booking does have to be accounted for so I dont think I can call it good, but it is not horrible either. It is far superior to WrestleMania VIII. The Giant literally had one match before this match. That is pretty high stakes for a green as grass rookie. Main Event against Hulk Hogan. Not only did he NOT stink out the joint, he looked like a veteran. You couldnt tell this was functionally his first match ever. The layout is very typical Hogan, but it works great. Hogan brings it to The Giant early with good shots and I love the Giant register. Hogan goes for the slam, but he aint getting The Giant up on the first attempt, brutha. Giant takes over. I LOVED those wild double axehandle swings. It looked like he was swinging a baseball bat. It looked great. Giant was really good with his clubbering offense. Hogan does a good job selling on the run, but it is a full court press by The Giant. The knucklelock is sold well and feels like a great Clash of the Titans moment. Giant Bodyslam and he goes for the leg drop, but crashes & burns. Great transition to Hogan rockin' and rollin'. Hogan throwing all that offense into Giant's face looked great, but he cant get the Big Man off his feet. He finally clothesline The Giant over the top rope to a big pop. Hogan runs out of a steam and on an Irish Whip ends up in a Sidewalk Slam. Another good transition. They work the Bearhug not once but twice. Again this is a good Hogan match. GIANT CHOKESLAM~! HELL YEAH! 1-2-NO! HULK-UP~! DROPS THE LEG! JIMMY HART NAILS THE REF WITH THE BIG GOLD BELT! Hogan does not see that it is Jimmy Hart who does it. So Jimmy Hart is able to nail him too! Here comes Randy Savage and Lex Luger, but whose side is he on? Luger attacks Savage. Here is the YEH-TAY~! YEH-TAY humps Hogan in the ass and then Savage. Luger RACKS them both. Michael Buffer says twice the title cant change hands on a DQ. Giant is declared the winner by DQ. I assume it is because Jimmy Hart was aligned with Hogan and when he hit the ref that counted as being in favor for Hogan, but that is dumb. It turns out the Nov 6th Nitro that Jimmy Hart put a clause in the contract that Giant could win the title on DQ. I dont mind the shady contract fine print. I think thats good heel shit, but I think declaring Giant winner by DQ is a stretch. I think it would have been better if Jimmy Hart clearly hit Giant with the title and then it is revealed on Nitro the next night that it was a double cross. Anyways, it was a good match and if it was just a Jimmy Hart and a Lex Luger heel turn, I think this match would be much better remembered however with the Monster Truck Battle and the YEH-TAY~! I gotta keep this below ***.

Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs Sting & "Ric Flair" - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 I watched all of Halloween Havoc 1995 something like 5-10 years ago. This is even more glorious than I remember it. It is not just the turn that is excellent, but the actual match itself is wicked good. Bobby Heenan, as always when Flair is involved, is much more engaged and entertaining on commentary. The Sting shine was brilliant. It is exactly how you want a top level babyface to handle two midcard heels that are our threats. He divides & conquers and outsmarts them. In the Crockett tradition, they mix in enough camp and levity to make it really fun. Love the Full Nelson spot where Sting Kangaroo Kicks Pillman off the apron and then switches onto Double A and drops Anderson on his ass. Sting gets bated to the floor, Heenan says that is the exact opposite thing to do, but he ducks both Pillman and Anderson and slugs them both. The Military Press Slam on Pillman had me pumping my fist. The standard Pillman spot with the railing worked perfectly into the transition. As a groggy Pillman pulls himself up on the apron, Anderson cracks Sting's head into Pilman's and thus begins the Heat Segment. The babyface shine was money. Of course, this is the exact time, Flair hits the ring, which is perfect timing. The crowd was rabid for Flair! Lots of We Want Flair chants both before and after his arrival. I enjoyed the heat segment as well. I thought it did grow a little long in the tooth, but it was more entertaining than not. Perfect mixture of the Horsemen grinding Sting down, hope spots and cutoffs. I really enjoyed Flair on the apron. He was a maniac, strutting and hollering at Sting. Flair yelling "Stand Tall" and Sting doing his Action Movie Acting howling "NATURE BOY!" was so damn good. It felt like a real struggle. I bit on two or three of the hope spots thinking that had to be it. I really liked the Sting rally that ended in the Spinebuster. They get bonus points for having Sting crack Pillman's head into Anderson's head on the apron to be the high spot that leads to the tag. The tag is tremendous. It was the perfect climax to all the tension they built. Flair stomping around and winding up to hit Double A ONLY TO SLUG THE STINGER! What really makes it is Sting's reaction. He does NOT lie there and get pummeled. He is INCENSED! He fights back and the way Anderson and Pillman TACKLE him is so realistic. I loved it. Flair gets his cheapshots in. To me this is a ***** angle, wicked good. Hard to rate as a match because it is more of an angle, but it really holds up well as a match too so I am going ****. This ages very well, I am pretty sure this is my 3rd time watching it.

Lex Luger vs Meng - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 Unfortunately I watched this about 2 hours ago, but couldnt get to the review until now due to a couple work emergencies. Which is too bad because I had a lot of thoughts about this match. I will be lead with the most interesting: Lex Luger's individual performance. Coming watching a lot of WWF Lex Luger in the past 6 months, it is night and day watching the Total Package here. I dont think anyone would dispute that the quality of Lex Luger performance is significantly better than pretty much any of his WWF work. Only 3-4 months prior to this match, he was having sub-par matches with Yokozuna in singles and in tags. It is not like all of sudden Lex Luger just got better. We know his work prior to his WWF run was better than his WWF run as well. There are two possible options in my opinion: 1. Lex Luger dogged it in WWF. Either he didnt like working there, he fell out of love with wrestling and was just cashing a paycheck, who knows. One theory would be his low effort level. Effort level definitely would explain why his WWF 1995 work would suck. Why suck in 1993? The rocket was strapped to his back, but he just was not having good matches at all. You could say his effort level rose in WCW because he was back amongst his friends or that he knew with his bridge burned with WWF, this was it, and he needed this to work out or he was fucked. 2. An institutional difference between WWF and WCW. We all know the house style between WCW and WWF is different. This match here is not a great match per se. No one would confuse it with Luger/ Flair or Luger/Steamboat but it was so much more dynamic than anything Luger in WWF expect maybe his match with Nash. There were so many wrinkles and things that kept you off-beat. There were more hope spots and cutoffs. It is not like all of sudden it was a workrate marvel, but there was more struggle and urgency than anything in WWF. The question becomes was the WWF hamstringing him. Were they giving him direction and he was simply following it? That being said it was clear the Kliq and Bret Hart were still having great, workrate-centric matches at the same time. Were the Kliq & Bret flouting WWF direction? Did the WWF seem them as workers but Luger was a "power" guy like Hogan should wrestle in a way different than Bret and Shawn? Why couldnt Luger be like fuck that, I used to go 40+ minutes with Flair, I can work too, pal. It is hard to say why, but it is easy to say there is a significant difference IMMEDIATELY with Luger retuning to WCW. As for the body of the match, I enjoyed Luger's shine. Luger worked primarily as a babyface in WWF and dont remember a shine this good. He was showing his ability to out-power and out-think the Monster Meng. There was a great catapult to Meng and he worked the arm well shoving him into a post. Both these high spots while not revolutionary you would not see in the WWF. I thought the transition to Meng's heat segment was a bit lame. I thought we would get more arm work. Sullivan seemed to distract Luger a little. I liked how they built up the heat segment. Luger misses a charged hard into the corner. Meng follows up with a great shoulderbreaker. Meng works the arm. Meng is really giving the full court press. Smothering him in the corner. Great piledriver by Meng. There was another good cutoff, but unfortunately I forget. I remember he hoists him up for a belly to back suplex, but Meng falls on top for a cover. The noisy verbal selling of Luger is back in full force. He just feels like he cares. Luger gets a great crossbody. Strong vertical suplex back into the ring. The finish stretch was a series of Luger clotheslines that Meng registered for pitch perfect. Powerslam to set up the Rack. Meng spikes with the Golden Thumb Ring, Asiatic Spike. It shocks me because I was 100% certain won and I was like I cant believe Luger would kick out. Sullivan comes in and kicks Luger at 2 to trigger the DQ. So whats going on here? I am a big proponent of late 1995 WCW booking. I think it is a paradigm that could be followed to great success. A lot of people try to recreate the NWO or Austin vs McMahon, but that is much more difficult in my opinion than trying to replicate 1995 WCW. The others rely more on the charisma and unique nature of the people involved. WCW 1995 booking model is something you could plug 4-6 main eventers in and would result in interesting stories. The crux is that no one trusts anyone and there is seeds of doubt sown weekly. The popular game show "Traitors" which my wife got me to watch all three seasons of is a great example of this style of storytelling. Luger shows back up in WCW at the first Nitro. Great return. He immediately wants a shot at Hogan and the World Title, but is he friend or foe. Of course, people like Sting would vouch for him, but he does NOT have an impeccable record, he is a known asshole. Then you got the Dungeon of Doom and Kevin Sullivan playing these mind games by not attacking Luger on Nitros. Is Luger DOD 4 Life? Or are they framing him, playing on the natural suspicions of Hogan and Savage to isolate Sting/Luger from Hogan/Savage. United the stand, but Divided They Fall strategy by Dungeon of Doom? There are all sort of off-shoots here: Luger proves his worth to the babyfaces, or he is DOD 4 Life or he becomes radicalized like Sting did in 1996 and so pissed that no one trusts him that strikes it out on his own. To me this is the pinnacle of pro wrestling booking. It is a matrix-style booking where you leverage these 6-15 interpersonal relationships to feed individual motivations that create organic storylines. As a huge history buff and fan of soap operas, to me this is the optimal way to present pro wrestling so that it is intriguing. Now even though I like the paradigm of late 1995 WCW booking, I will be first to admit it somewhat lacks in execution and it is nowhere near as good as say 86 Crockett or 96-97 WCW/NWO, but it is is a template that could be used for great success. Sorry, I never explained Sullivan's rationale. If Luger won this match, he has to wrestle Savage. Savage defeated the Zodiac in less than two minutes earlier in the show. A fan rushed the ring, but never made contact with the wrestlers. Zodiac missed a move off the top. Savage dropped the elbow. This looks like penultimate appearance by Zodiac before he transforms into the Booty Man in February 1996 (World War III is the last). This was near the end of Meng's push which would officially end with a job to who else but the Hulkster before he became Barbarian's tag team partner in late January 1996. So Sullivan's motivation could be twofold, one is that Luger vs Savage means that both men take more punishment and also it furthers this discord between Luger and Savage which in turn furthers the discord between Luger and Hogan. Overall, I really liked the finish and I enjoyed the body of the match. I liked Meng getting up in Sullivan's face demonstrating that not even Meng was in on the plan all along. Very cool booking here. *** 1/4