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| RDT Reviews RAW vs. Nitro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sep 1 2014, 09:41 AM Post #1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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With WCW Nitro hitting the network, I will start a new review series of weekly RAW vs. Nitro. I will go week by week and compare the two shows and give my opinion of what was the better show, as well as give some information about TV ratings and such as the time.
Up Next: October 23rd, 1995 RAW Main Event: 20 Man Battle Royal for a IC Title Shot Nitro Main Event: Harlem Heat vs. Sting and Lex Luger Edited by RDT, Jan 31 2016, 06:37 PM.
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Sep 3 2014, 11:03 PM Post #2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Posted Image 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 Posted Image 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 |
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Sep 4 2014, 09:08 AM Post #3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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POON SQUAD
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Mall of America! The greatest place on gods green earth. Good start to this btw. :) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Baldwin | Sep 4 2014, 10:25 AM Post #4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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6x EBL Champion
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PASTAMANIA is runnin' wild brother... is what you said in the bathroom 3 hours after eating at Pastamania. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sep 4 2014, 10:46 AM Post #5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Unfortunately it is going to be a while for next week...as the Network hasn't added any RAWs for a while and is stuck in early August =( | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oct 15 2014, 01:31 AM Post #6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Week 2 Posted Image Nitro: 9/11/95 Miami, FL We’ve got a big name World Title match tonight, Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger! I think it’s awesome that Bischoff put Luger in a Nitro main event immediately. Luger was all over WWF TV just two weeks prior. This is the go home PPV for Fall Brawl ’95. Mongo looks ridiculous with glasses. Bischoff says that Vader has gown AWOL. I think Vader was just fired. Anyway, he’s out of the War Games match. Sabu vs. Alex Wright We’re not in ECW are we anymore Sabu? Sabu takes Wright over the top with a frankensteiner. Sabu uses a chair as a springboard…but Wright moves and Sabu leg lariats the railing! Awesome backflip off the top from Wright…which transitions into a German Suplex. Sabu gets the three on Alex Wright after a top rope victory roll…but Sabu continues the attack and drives Wright through a table! Alex Wright wins by DQ in 3:58. Ref reverses the decision. Pretty fun 4 minute match with nice spots. Good showing off of Sabu and Wright. Here comes Ric Flair! Flair compares himself to Joe Montana and Arn Anderson to Lawrence Taylor. Uh… Lex Luger comes out to tell Flair “he’s too much” and leaves. Ok? What an odd segment that was. I mean the interview was fine…but the Luger cameo was what? Sting vs. VK Wallstreet Wallstreet is an absolute Million Dollar Man ripoff here. Bischoff says that “Shawn Michaels beat the big guy with a superkick!” I’m sure Vince McMahon had a heart attack right there. HBK vs. Sid was the main event on RAW…which was taped on August 28th, 1995. Bischoff says of Wallstreet: “It’s all about power, it’s all about money, and that’s why he’s in WCW”. You think Hogan said that about his contract negotiation? A very heavy anti-WWF segment here. Bischoff points out Luger was wrestling for the WWF nine days ago but left because he wanted competition. Ouch. Sting pins Wallstreet in 4:13. Crossbody off the top for the win. Too short for my tastes, but it was fine and the crowd was into it. Bischoff makes sure that we watch Saturday Night for the debut of Disco Inferno! Scott Norton vs. Randy Savage Norton was treated as a big deal early on. No one remembers his debut on the first Nitro…and by this time next year he’d be wrestling Ice Train. Savage is selling like a million bucks for Norton at least. Randy Savage pins Scott Norton in 5:39. The Dungeon of Doom hit the ring, and Norton and The Shark bump heads and Shark falls on Norton’s legs. This let’s Savage drop the big elbow for the win. Pretty weird finish. Dungeon of Doom attack Savage as a precursor to War Games. Weird to build up Norton to have him lose right away though. WCW World Championship: Hulk Hogan© vs. Lex Luger Hogan does put Luger over like a million bucks here. Well, right until he survives the Torture Rack. We get the Hulk Up as well. Crowd kinda died during it. Hulk Hogan wins by DQ in 5:28. Dungeon of Doom ruins this one too. Hogan of course legdropped Luger…so much for putting him over. Sting and Savage run in, but the DOD don’t attack Luger! Now Hogan doesn’t trust him. This would set up the untruthworthy Luger deal. Sting defends him. How didn’t this lead to the Megapowers vs. Sting and Luger? Luger will be Vader’s replacement this Sunday! Well, at least that’s what Sting wants. Savage is against him. Hogan, the deciding vote, says yes. Savage is brilliant here. A solid outing for Nitro again, but I thought some things missed this time around. I liked Sabu vs. Wright…but the reverse decision blows. I don’t think anyone thought Wallstreet was beating Sting…and the announcers decided to use that time to talk about the WWF anyway. Flair’s interview was there. Scott Norton was put over in losing, but he wasn’t really the right guy to draw anyway. Hogan vs. Luger…booked as a dream match and all, went a mere 5 minutes. I feel like they could have cut Sting vs. Wallstreet here. It may have been the best quality match involving a big name, but also the least important. That being said…we still got a show full of nonstop action, and Hogan put on his working boots for Luger for 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Savage did too. It’s also a good sign that the Nitro rating barely moved…even though it was up against RAW this week. For the record I am all for Bischoff giving away the RAW results. TV Rating: 2.4 (-0.1) Grade: B+ Posted Image RAW: 9/11/95 Canton, Ohio Now that Vince saw what the competition was offering it was time to outshine them and own Monday Nights. Oh wait…the show is taped. Yes, taped back in August. Next week’s show is as well. Fun fact that Lex Luger was in a the dark match for this show. The WWF is coming off a pretty awful Summerslam (a one match care if there ever was one, although The Kid vs. Hakushi was fine too). Now they’ve lost one of their main players, how will Vince respond? Despite a pretty good talent roster, somehow this meant more pushing for Mabel. No idea why. The main event here is a match that was originally scheduled for Summerslam: HBK vs. Sid for the IC Title. Watching Nitro first though…Bischoff told us how that would turn out. We have The Bulldog vs. Razor too. Two pretty big matches! No idea why the WWF went to this terrible intro in 1995…especially when the classic RAW theme outright owned. Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog The Bulldog just turned heel on Diesel. Ramon just lost the IC title Ladder Match…and also had problems with Dean Douglas. The Bulldog cutting his hair short was a great look for him. This has been a solid back and forth contest so far. Good heat for Davey Boy. Accidental ref bump…leads to Douglas attacking Ramon after Ramon had hit the Razor’s Edge. Kid makes the save…and takes an awesome bump off the apron! British Bulldog wins by DQ in 7:10. Kid comes off the top, but misses the Bulldog and hits Razor. Shouldn’t Razor win by DQ? Anyway, pretty good opening segment. Vince interviews Kid and Razor, and it turns into an argument with Kid and Ramon when Vince says Kid cost Razor the match. Kid says last week (during tennis?) Razor cost him the match. He challenges Razor to a match for next week! He makes sure to point out he beat Razor the first time. Ramon accepts. Weird poem from Todd Pettengill. Anyway, Yokozuna and Owen vs. Mabel and Mo next week I guess? The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Rad Radford and The Brooklyn Brawler No idea who’s winning this one. Smokin’ Gunns win when Bart Gunn pins The Brawler in 2:46. It was an action packed 3 minutes at least. Did the Gunns ever name that sidewalk slam flying legdrop combo? Goldust promo. No idea what he’s talking about…but who cares. It owns. References The Undertaker here, interestingly enough. The Goldust character is brilliant. I like that they use the helicopter stock footage that would appear in The Rock’s 2003 heel titantron. D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em vs. Scott Taylor Two Attitude wrestlers here! Awful chokeslam there. Funny what a long way that move has come for the future Kane. Yank’em pins Taylor in 2:14. He wins with the DDS…which yes…is a DDT. How many people switched to Savage vs. Norton here? In Your House hype. All the matches set already it looks like. It doesn’t look too bad! WWF Intercontinental Championship Shawn Michaels© vs. Sycho Sid No one knows how to get a solid match out of Sid like Shawn does. Shawn makes Sid look amazing here. Awesome nip up from Sid, which led to a chokeslam. Shawn Michaels pins Sid in 7:21. Three superkicks…one of them a real superkick, gets Shawn the win. Shawn bumps everywhere for Sid, and it leads to a very good match…even if it’s a bit short. In retrospect, it’s odd that Vince allowed Shawn to do a striptease in the middle of the ring. One last backstage interview with Diesel and HBK before we call it a night. The show had a very good beginning and end, but it’s hard to care about any of that stuff in the middle. Thanks to Nitro, RAW squash matches would begin to be phased out. Unless you thought people were sticking around for The Brooklyn Brawler and Scott Taylor. That along hurts the show enough. The 5 minute In Your House commercial is bothersome too. Nothing is built up (on RAW at least) yet a whole card is set already? Should I be watching Superstars instead? Again…the opener and main were good. TV Rating: 2.5 Grade: B Weekly Review Watching Nitro made me feel like WCW had so much talent they had to get in on the show. Watching RAW made me wonder why the WWF didn’t use all their top guys. Now that Nitro set that standard, RAW would have to catch up. Even though Shawn vs. Sid was the better match in terms quality, Hogan vs. Luger was a huge deal with the WCW World Title on the line and everything. Nitro had an action packed show from top to bottom. RAW had a good start and good ending with stuff no one cared about in the middle. Plus, Bischoff told you what would happen anyway… Great start for Nitro ratings wise. First week of competition and they lose by merely 0.1. Not bad at all. TV Ratings Score: 1-0 RAW Grade Score: 1-0 Nitro |
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Jan 9 2015, 12:58 AM Post #7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Week 3 Posted Image 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+ Posted Image 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 Edited by RDT, Jan 9 2015, 01:04 AM.
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Jan 12 2015, 04:59 AM Post #8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Week 4 Posted Image RAW: 9/25/95 Grand Rapids, MI RAW won last week with the go home show for In Your House. This week, we’ll get the RAW that followed that show. It should be noted there was a controversial decision at the PPV that probably ticked off a lot of fans, but we’ll get there, we’ll get there. Well, Vince is going over it anyway, so let’s explain. The match was Diesel and Shawn Michaels against Yokozuna and Owen Hart. Diesel was the World Champ, Shawn the IC Champ, and Owen and Yoko the tag champs. All titles were on the line and the show was sold on the fact that there was a guaranteed title change. Well, Owen didn’t show and The British Bulldog took his place. Owen though interfered in the match and Diesel ended up pinning him to win the tag belts. Now we get a segment of Jim Cornette and his lawyer (the debut of Clarence Mason!) arguing with President Gorilla Monsoon that Owen wasn’t legally in the tag match. Monsoon agreed, and Yoko and Owen kept their belts. So basically, the WWF said screw you to the fans with their “guaranteed title change” proclamation. Perhaps it was a way to drum up interest for RAW…but I mean, then you need a better segment than Vince explaining it to us. Bad start there. Skip vs. Marty Jannetty Vince tells us that Jannetty is returning to the WWF here. Really had no idea he was even gone at this point. I do remember a 1995 ECW run from him though. Sadly when I think Jannetty and Candido I think of two guys who should have achieved a lot more in professional wrestling. Same goes for Sunny. This REALLY rings true for Jannetty though. Ha, Sunny and Skip hug, but when Sunny yells at the crowd Jannetty attacks Skip. Sunny then turns to hug “Skip”, but hugs Jannetty then panics realizing what happened. THAT’S where Shawn Michaels learned that spot…he did that to Melina at Survivor Series 2006. Dean Douglas comes out to take notes on the match. Seems like a step down. Marty Jannetty pins Skip in 9:41. Jannetty nails the Rocker Dropper and then a top rope first drop for the win. This was a very good back and forth opener. It would be nice to say Jannetty finally cleaned up his act (he could have been a really good IC title foil for Goldust in 1996), but he got stuck in the New Rocker Tag Team and didn’t make it through 1996. We get more information about why Owen and Yoko kept the belts…but Monsoon adds that the champs will defend the titles on RAW vs. The Gunns. WWF World Tag Team Championship Owen Hart and Yokozuna© vs. The Smokin’ Gunns There’s history here. Owen and Yoko debuted as a team at Mania XI when they beat the Gunns for the tag title. Billy Gunn takes Yoko down with a bulldog. I always thought Yoko sold a little too much later in this WWF run. It’s how you knew he was never getting back to the very top. Owen’s neckbreaker gets semi-botched as Gunn drops too early. Does Yoko EVER hit that elbow drop? The Smokin’ Gunns wins the Tag Titles when Bart Gunn pinned Owen Hart in 12:13. Owen and Yoko collide, and Yoko falls in the corner. The Gunns hit the Sidewinder, and Yoko accidentally squashes Owen. Billy dropkicks Yoko out, and Bart pins Owen. Another good match! Crowd popped HUGE for the title change. If Yoko and Owen were in line for pushes, this makes a lot of sense. Problem is, that didn’t happen. Shawn and Diesel come in to celebrate with the Gunns. Next week we have Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte II and a Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid rematch as well. Gorilla then runs down the next In Your House card. Goldust vs. Marty Jannetty. Undertaker vs. Mabel (which would change to something a lot worse), and for the WWF Title: Diesel vs. the Bulldog. Bret also gets the winner at Survivor Series. By the way, that card listing is awful. The British Bulldog vs. The Undertaker Interesting spot here now. The super protected Undertaker vs. the #1 Contender to the WWF Title that needs to look strong: the British Bulldog. Great heel manager spot: Undertaker goes for the Rope Walk (feels weird calling it Old School in 1995), but Cornette shakes the ropes allowing Bulldog to armdrag Undertaker off the top. Taker gets clotheslines over the top, but lands on his feet and choke grabs Cornette. More awesomeness here. Bulldog gets the advantage here with an attack from behind. King Mabel is looking on! Oh boy! Now Waylon Mercy is looking on. I actually don’t know where that one is going. Taker-Mercy feud was potentially in the works perhaps? Taker is selling the leg injury big time. I didn’t know Taker sold stuff in 1995. Great piledriver from the Bulldog! The Undertaker wins by DQ in 9:20. Mabel comes in, but Taker confronts him. Bulldog nails Taker into Mabel, who plants Taker with a belly to belly suplex. Bulldog and Mabel attack, but Shawn and Diesel make the save. Owen, Yoko and the Gunns all come down. Eventually Taker makes it to his feet and shakes all the faces’ hands, which is a little weird. Anyway, Taker had this won with a chokeslam before Mabel came in, so I don’t know how strong the Bulldog really looked…but I think it’s doable overall. Match was also really good. Taker did an awesome sell job, even afterwards (which is strong enough for the Bulldog I think) and Bulldog looked really motivated here. Probably because he had a bunch of PPV main events lined up. 3/3 for RAW tonight! Shawn dances to bring us home for some reason. If this show had any remote historical significance, it would get a super high rating. But did anything here matter at all long term? The only major thing that comes out of this is that it does lead to Owen vs. Shawn eventually, which is the concussion angle of course. It should be noted that despite the good show, the rating for RAW pretty much blew. I think one thing hurt this that wasn’t Nitro related: the PPV the night before. I just don’t think a bait and switch like that is going to work. Then again, maybe Nitro did something that was just blow away. TV Rating: 1.9 (-0.8) Grade: B+ Posted Image Nitro: 9/25/95 Florence, South Carolina Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno We first saw Wright on Nitro a couple of weeks ago against Sabu. I like how Disco Inferno had no character development for three years. He’s the same guy until he tries to join the Wolfpac. Alex Wright almost messed up that springboard dropkick bad. It was passable though. McMichael kills Monday Night Football on the broadcast. He says the Niners have it won. I like that RAW wasn’t the only show they took shots at. Alex Wright pins Disco Inferno in 4:00. Wright gets a backslide out of nowhere for the win. It was a pretty good match with Disco controlling it, then it just ended abruptly. Not bad, but it could have used a proper Wright comeback if they are going with him. WCW World Champion Hulk Hogan has a neck brace, but he’s letting us know he hasn’t missed a workout since Fall Brawl. Hogan makes the challenge for a Monster Truck Match at Halloween Havoc against The Giant. And then he challenges him to a WCW Title match as well. Hogan actually says he’s gonna bury Giant right next to his father, which seems distasteful although I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way. SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM! We go over what happened last week with Lex Luger and Randy Savage. It doesn’t take long for Luger and Savage to verbally go at it again. Savage is brilliant here. Luger challenges Savage to a match on Nitro next week. Luger says he’ll leave WCW if he can’t beat Savage. Well, that’s a headliner for sure. I wonder if this segment was key in the ratings war this week. Bischoff hypes “MACHINE VS. MACHINE”. I wonder if he really thought that was a big draw. Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Kurasawa Kurasawa is hyped as the man who broke Road Warrior Hawk’s arm. A lot of kicks from Kurasawa. Crazy back and forth here. Each guys turn armbars into suplexes. Kurasawa pins Pittman in 4:26. Kurasawa gets a German Suplex, but Pittman flails around and it looks pretty bad for the three count. Still a pretty good match for 4 minutes. It seems like they both just threw whatever moves they could out there and just hoped it worked out, which it did. Arn Anderson and Flyin’ Brian Pillman interview. Pillman with a great promo, running down Ric Flair. Double A points out that Flair’s been asking help from guys he’s turned on over the years (Savage, Sting, etc.). It’s a pretty brilliant promo. We get a replay of the Savage-Kevin Sullivan beach fight we saw last week. Kevin Sullivan vs. Randy Savage The Zodiac makes his way out and posts Savage quickly. Kevin Sullivans wins by DQ in 2:58. Savage throws Sullivan to the outside, brings the Zodiac in, beats him up, then throws the ref for the DQ[/b]. Fun little brawl for three minutes I guess, but not much to say here. The Giant lays out Savage! Some WCW jobbers I never heard of come down and Giant kills them. Alex Wright runs down, also killed by the Giant. Lex Luger comes in…but stands over Savage. Giant attacks him and hits a chokeslam, and Sullivan takes him away angrily. GREAT segment to get the Giant over there. Giant’s falling chokeslam is awesome. Meng runs down for his match with Luger, since Luger is still down. Lex Luger vs. Meng We get told Hogan will be on Nitro next week. Nice piledriver from Meng on Luger. Sadly after that piledriver it slows down as we get a bunch of chokes. Ah well. Gutwrench hip breaker with the foot by Meng? Okay then. Meng pins Lex Luger in 6:46. Meng gets the spike and knocked Luger out in his comeback for the pin. WHAT? How was that a finish that made any sense? Meng beats Luger without any help or anything. And I’m supposed to buy Luger against the Savages and Giants of the world? Huh? Match was decent if not a bit boring. A downer of a main event. I think Nitro won this rating battle because of its segments and not its matches. Double A and Pillman were gold. Savage and Luger were good. Hogan’s promo was ridiculous but probably was “must see” since he didn’t get a “live” interview of him the week before. The wrestling wasn’t bad either, although the main event left something to be desired. Still, most of the character development hit here, especially with The Giant. TV Rating: 2.7 (+0.8) Grade: B+ Weekly Review Oddly enough, RAW had the wrestling this week while Nitro had the interviews and segments. While RAW’s matches were very good, the build-up to the next In Your House was really disappointing. I mean, all we get is Gorilla Monsoon announcing the matches for the next PPV? What kind of build is that? At least we got some Taker-Mabel interaction for build, but soon we’ll see that won’t mean a thing. But good wrestling is good wrestling, and we got a title change no less. Nitro continued its great build for Halloween Havoc. We are still missing some of the excitement we got from the first two shows, but when you have strong segments like the Double A and Pillman interview, the Luger-Savage challenge and the Giant killing everyone, I’m going to buy that. A tie for this week seems appropriate. Nitro’s first win in the ratings column had to be very exciting for them as well. I assume again it was because of the strong promos and the Giant. TV Ratings Score: 2-1 RAW Grade Score: 1-1-1 Tie September 1995 Monthly Review Stats 9/4/95 (Nitro 2.5, RAW: N/A) 9/11/95 (RAW 2.5, Nitro 2.4) 9/18/95 (RAW 2.7, Nitro 1.9) 9/25/95 (Nitro 2.7, RAW 1.9) Rating Average: Nitro 2.48, RAW 2.37 TV Ratings Score: 2-1 RAW 9/4/95 (Nitro A+, RAW: N/A) 9/11/95 (Nitro B+, Raw B ) 9/18/95 (RAW B, Nitro C+) 9/25/95 (RAW B+, Nitro B+) Grade Average: Nitro B+, RAW B Grade Score: 1-1-1 Tie The first month of the Monday Night Wars was a full on assault from WCW and I think they delivered. First they attacked when RAW wasn’t on and put on a can’t miss show. They had a major surprise with Lex Luger. They put Hogan and Luger on in the main against RAW right away. They gave away HBK vs. Sid. Attack, attack, attack from Nitro. For WCW to just debut on Monday Night and be on par and at times better than the WWF was pretty incredible. WCW only had one show early on that I thought was a miss. It’s not like the WWF had a bad month. It was a pretty strong run of shows considering most of them were taped and still had squash matches. Vince definitely picked it up on the 9-25 show though. He was in the fight of his life. Overall, Nitro was just better this month. September 1995 Grade Nitro: A RAW: B+ |
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Apr 10 2015, 12:48 AM Post #9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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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 Posted Image 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+ Posted Image 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 |
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Jan 19 2016, 02:54 AM Post #10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tyler
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Week 6 Posted Image RAW: 10/9/95 Grand Rapids, MI I won’t lie, I really prefer the classic RAW theme (that gets brought back at some point in ’96). Yokozuna, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels, Diesel and The Undertaker A huge main event kicks off RAW and honestly I can’t think of a better start! Really cool segment where Shawn Michaels talks about doing a charity with kids. Honestly, 1996 HBK could have used a lot more of that. It seemed genuine and really cool overall. Shawn and Owen kick the match off and we get a cool double arm drag. Everyone’s in there early. Double big boot from Taker and Diesel take out Yokozuna! Undertaker’s DDT on Yokozuna is always awesome. Waylon Mercy is watching for some reason. Jerry Lawler mentions on Superstars that Diesel will face Mercy in what would turn out to be Mercy (Dan Spivey’s) last match. Camp Cornette finally takes control on HBK. Dean Douglas is out here now as he was feuding with Shawn at the time. Vince McMahon hypes AOL chats with HBK and Lawler. Feels weird that AOL chats were 20 years ago now. Owen Hart comes off the top rope right as we get a commercial break. On one hand it’s frustrating to see a commercial break right in the middle of a big spot like that. On the other hand it might have been a good idea because you want to see if Owen landed or not (which we are shown he missed). I’m against commercial breaks in any matches though. HBK tags Diesel in and he cleans out until Owen gets a cheap shot in. Running powerslam from the Bulldog doesn’t get it down as Undertaker makes the save! Camp Cornette wins when the British Bulldog pinned Diesel. When the referee tries to get Undertaker out, Yokozuna comes in and drops a big legdrop on Diesel and the Bulldog gets the pin. Good finish that at least gives the fans some hope that the Bulldog could beat Diesel for the title (not much hope though). Great match as 1995 RAW continues to impress. Undertaker tries to fight Camp Cornette off, but Mabel comes down and the numbers are too much for Undertaker to handle. Yokozuna and Mabel continually drop legdrops and splashes on the Undertaker. This is where Mabel infamously broke Undertaker’s face which led to the Phantom of the Opera Undertaker. Douglas comes down to stop HBK from helping and hits a front suplex on the steel steps. The Bulldog continues his beatdown on Diesel. You even see Undertaker’s eye all purple from the injury. Awesome stuff absolutely everywhere here. A great first half of RAW. We get a replay of the Bret Hart-Jean Lafitte match from last week and DDS attacking Bret. Next week on RAW: Bret vs. Yankeem in a cage. For some reason we get a replay of the entire Yankeem vs. Bret match at Summerslam. A cheap way to get a Bret match on RAW without him wrestling perhaps? This was already the third RAW of the taping, and Bret wrestled on taping two and will on four. Jerry Lawler is telling us Mabel is trying to get into Undertaker’s dressing room. Fatu vs. Skip I’m guessing this was an excuse to get Sunny on RAW? In a pretty funny spot, Skip comes off the top rope with a flying headbutt, but Fatu’s samoan so you know how that went for Skip… Fatu pins Skip. Flying splash off the top finishes Skip. Match was fine…although I don’t really like Vince trying to sell Skip as someone who is in good shape but is stupid. Also, the placement of the match seems strange. Unless people really like Sunny I assume they were switching to Nitro here. We get a replay of the destruction of the Taker-Diesel-HBK team…especially the Mabel-Taker stuff. Hilarious Cornette interview as he calls out Jim Ross for just barging into the Camp Cornette locker room and as a bonus the Bulldog is wearing a stupid hat. Turns out the hat is a gift from Princess Diana herself! Mabel comes in and says Undertaker will get buried at In Your House! Of course we wouldn’t get that match since Mabel broke Taker’s face here. Even though it’s based off of one match what a great show this was. The big match delivered and pushed several storylines in one. Even though it was a replay we got some good hype for Bret vs. DDS. Fatu vs. Skip was fine and we had a good promo at the end by Cornette. I have to take a little off as a PPV match replay is a bit cheap…and the second half of the show didn’t live up to the first half. Still, RAW felt like a big deal. TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1) Grade: B+ Posted Image Nitro: 10/9/95 Chicago, IL We see what happened to Hulk Hogan last week at the hands of The Taskmaster and The Giant. IS HOGAN’S CAREER OVER?! Nitro opening is so freakin’ cool. Bobby Heenan says Hogan’s in the building but there’s a restraining order in place. Sting shows up though. He says he’s going to fix the Luger-Savage issue we’ve had in the past few weeks. US Title: Sting© vs. The Shark Sting retains by pin. Match takes about a minute. Shark gets some offense in, but Sting hits a couple of Stinger Splashes and a top rope cross bodyblock for the win. While it was short, Sting got a good reaction and it got Nitro off and running on a positive note. This was pretty much the end for John Tenta though. We get a replay of what happened last week with Hogan and being attacked by Grandma Sullivan. Sounds like I’m making fun of it sure…but this was pretty awesome. Sabu vs. Mr. JL That’s right, Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn four years before it would be a big ECW match. WCW fans give us a “Sabu” chant. It’s still quite bizarre that Sabu had a WCW run. Sabu starts quickly with a somersault legdrop over the top rope. He follows up with a leg lariat. “Hogan sucks” chant now. Smark crowd in ’95! Suicide dive from JL! More flying from Sabu! Over the top rope somersault to the outside! Air Sabu into the railing! German suplex then a running dropkick by JL! Really fun match here! JL drops Sabu with a DDT where Sabu was propped on the top rope. That was the Randy Orton-RVD finish at Armaggedon ’03 I think. Sabu makes Mr. JL submit. JL comes off the top rope but Sabu counters and locks in the Camel Clutch for the win. Maybe it was a bit of a spot fest, but this still gets the 1995 curve of being awesome stuff that just wasn’t on TV yet. And it was fun. For the heck of it Sabu hits JL with a bit of a botched sunset flip over the top rope onto the floor. But it still worked. For some reason Eric Bischoff has to talk about Hogan as the camera cuts to him…even though Sabu is still attacking JL. Come on! Sting is in the ring with Luger and he calls out Savage. Savage actually gets some boos. Really smarky crowd. Savage questions Sting right off the bat and wants to know why the Giant has chokeslammed Hogan, Luger and himself…but not Sting. Sting thinks Luger and Savage should go at it if they beat Meng and Kamala in their respective matches. Luger is hesitant and Sting basically calls him a whiny coward. Seems weird that Sting came up with this solution. Segment was fine. Chris Benoit comes to Nitro in a limo. “WCW, where the big boys play”. Bischoff really puts Benoit over as well. WCW made a big deal out of everything and that really worked early on. Disco Inferno is dancing for some reason. Big Bubba vs. Road Warrior Hawk Both Hawk and Bubba walk past a dancing Disco. For some reason Disco put a WCW hat on Hawk’s spiked shoulder pads. Not sure what the point of Disco doing this was. Hawk gets a huge chant. Obviously this is because this is his hometown. Big Bubba wins by countout. Disco jumps onto the apron at about the 2 minute mark and Hawk goes after him and beats him up down the aisleway. What the heck was that? Here comes Hogan and he gets some boos. This was the beginning of Hogan’s short term dark side period where he wore black all the time. Even the neckbrace is black. The Giant is Andre’s son angle felt tasteless even though it technically wasn’t. Hogan seemingly takes a shot at Vince here as he says in New York City the promotor got jealous over Hulkamania’s success. He gets back to wanting to fight the Giant. What a random shot that was though. Here comes a monster truck with the Dungeon of Doom in it! Police are in pursuit! Hogan goes out to face the Giant. Not Hogan’s best promo to be honest. Does Monster Truck vs. Monster Truck really sound like a great idea for a gimmick match? Bischoff is told by police that Hogan and the Giant are being kept apart. Cage Match Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson Bischoff brings up that normally you have to buy a PPV to see a match of this caliber. That’s a good point you know. Exciting as it is, hotshotting is dangerous in the long run. Flair is pretty much dominating this match, slamming Double A into the cage multiple times. “We Want Blood” chant. Jeez. Flyin’ Brian tries to get into cage…and Flair knocks him off the side of the cage onto the floor! Arn Anderson pins Ric Flair. Anderson hits Flair with brass knuckles or some object and gets the pin. Too short for what Flair vs. Anderson in a cage should be. It wasn’t bad or anything but I’m left disappointed. Flair challenges Anderson and Pillman to a handicap match on Nitro. Heenan: “I’ve had enough of Hulk Hogan shoved down my throat all these years.” I know Heenan respects Hogan, but man what a comment that is considering it’s not a shoot comment. Next week we get DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd and Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero! I’ll be honest, I didn’t like most of this show. The beginning with Sting was fine as was the Mr. JL vs. Sabu match. Sting helping make Savage vs. Luger was weird but okay. Hawk vs. Rogers? Yuck. Hogan’s promo? Not good and the Monster Truck silliness didn’t work for me. Flair vs. Double A could have been a lot better. Still, Nitro got a solid rating this week. I guess that’s what counts. TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1) Grade: C+ Weekly Review I wrote for last week that RAW only had a chance if the Hogan-Giant angle got too hokey…and well that’s what happened. Hogan taking shots at Vince for no reason was also unnecessary. While Nitro had some enjoyable parts I didn’t really enjoy the show overall. RAW on the other hand came out like a house of fire with the big six man tag team match and only didn’t score a higher grade because the rest of the show was merely okay. Another tie in the ratings, but RAW definitely had the stronger show this week. WCW still has tons of cards to play though as the Flair vs. Anderson feud can easily be great next week just because of who’s involved. Plus Eddie vs. Benoit? We don’t know what’s going to happen next with Hogan either. If they can just get a little more serious about the feud, perhaps it’ll come off better on TV. I can only see the Giant screaming and riding a monster truck so many times. TV Ratings Score: 2-1-2 RAW Grade Score: 2-1-2 RAW |
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Tyler
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Week 7 Posted Image 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 Posted Image 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 to Andre 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 |
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