Talk about it here.

The last five minutes of the match was all that aired, but it was really, really good. Nikita gets DQ'd for throwing Rude over the top and they brawl their way back to the dressing room. Rude was at his best here. This has a real NWA feel to it, especially with the dressing room stuff.

Good stuff from Rude indeed. I liked the backstage brawl with Terry Taylor looking a lot like a dark haired Flair.

Good story with Rude getting his back worked over. I'm a mark for the dressing room brawls.

Backstage brawl. Feels like Mid-south.

Good as Koloff has looked. I was wondering why this made yearbook and then we get that pretty sweet locker room brawl with everyone involved.

JIP, Rude makes Nikita look very good, bumping for him and painting him as a threat. Awesome piledriver from Rude. Nikita is DQ'd for throwing Rude over the top in a really bad finish. The brawl continues in the dressing room where all the heels pile on Nikita before the faces eventually come for the save. Was there ever a payoff for this?

 

**1/4

Rude leads Nikita through a pretty solid match, that turns into a backstage battle royal. Good segment and WCW is finally segueing guys from one feud into another in effective ways.

I was about to say that this was good for what it was, but Nikita ruined the whole thing by throwing Rude over the top and getting himself disqualified. Mind you, a face getting DQed like that isn't necessarily a bad finish in and of itself, but they could have at least made it look like an accident and generated some heat and controversy. Instead, Nikita just decides "The hell with the match; what I really want to do is invade the heel dressing room and get my ass kicked by half the roster!" All of this after Tony blithered about how the US title means freedom, equality, and apple pie for the man from Lithuania.

 

The brawl itself was suitably chaotic, and I liked how the faces didn't waste any time getting in there to help Nikita. Most of the time in brawls like this, the face gets beaten half to death by the entire heel roster for at least ten minutes before one of his friends dares to poke his head in the door.

 

They're starting the women beater stuff again, this time with Nikita taking Steamboat's place. If this is the only way they can effectively use Medusa, get rid of her and put Heyman in Rude's corner full time. This is beyond ridiculous, and what makes it all worse is that Nikita actually adds fuel to the fire by grabbing Medusa when she tries to interfere as if she was a man. Maybe they are trying to make violence against women (or at least against Medusa) seem perfectly acceptable. After all, Sherri got clobbered by Hogan and others every time she turned around for years, and she was a former wrestler, just like Medusa.

 

Either Jesse needs to stop arguing with the play-by-play guys or they need to learn how to take it from him and give it back. Did anyone else catch the annoyance in Tony's voice he and Jesse were talking about thumbs to the eyes? Tony says that one slowed Nikita down, and Jesse says, "No, it stopped him, Schiavone." Tony then huffs, "All right, it stopped him" in the infamous "Stop trying to be the bad guy and let me call the greatest match in the history of our sport" tone that he and JR use with Jesse far too often. Watts really needs to clean this up before it detracts from a much more important match than this. If he's unsatisfied with Jesse, then he should get rid of him and be his own lead color guy (which he's eminently qualified for).

Rick Rude is at the height of his powers here. He sells so well for Mikita at the beginning. He really does reeling & stumbling. Great on offense too piledriver and his mannerisms. Rude looks like one of the best ever in this one.

Loved Rude's performance.  Jesse saying that he was going to be biased this time was kind of funny.  Then he went back to the woman beater thing which needed to never start in the first place.  Finish sucked, are we painting Nikita as a complete moron?  I loved the backstage brawl stuff with the heel locker room ganging up on NIkita and the faces coming in for the save.  Brian Pillman hogpiling on at the end was awesome!