ThunderStruck: WCW Monday Nitro Retro Review 09/11/95

From Miami, Florida’s 9th Center, it’s episode two of WCW Monday Nitro!

Eric Bischoff hypes tonight’s show and the main event of WCW Champion Hulk Hogan defending against Lex Luger. We’ll also see Scott Norton in action as well as the debut of Sabu. Can’t wait. Bischoff and Steve McMichael are joined on commentary by Bobby the Brain Heenan.

We flash back to Luger and Hogan’s face off last week. The whole thing would’ve gone better if Hogan could do improv at any decent level.

Eric Bischoff informs us that Vader will not be at the pay per view and is officially AWOL from WCW(he would show up at the WWF Royal Rumble four months later).

Sabu makes his WCW debut in the opening match and he’s taking on Alex Wright. Sabu wins the match in less than four minutes. Impressive debut with Sabu throwing his body on the line throughout.

Sabu attacks Wright after the match on the outside. He sets up a table and dives onto him so they go through it together(Sabu breaks most of it). Nick Patrick reverses his decision and disqualifies Sabu for the mess after the match. Makes no sense, but that’s Dubya-See-Dubya for ya.

Mean Gene promotes the WCW Hotline. 19009099900. Yup.

Step into the ring with Foreman For Real, from Acclaim!

Slim Jim commercial with the Macho Man!

Mean Gene is in the ring and he brings out the eleven time World Champion, Ric Flair! Flair talks about Arn Anderson not being by his side while he’s been partying. Luger comes out to interrupt the interview. Flair hypes Luger being here to beat Hogan. Luger says Flair is too much because some things never change. Luger leaves and the interview is over. What was the point of this?

VK Wallstreet(formerly IRS aka Mike Rotunda) takes on Sting in his WCW “debut”(he’d been there before under his real name). Sting defeats Wallstreet in less than four minutes. Not much of a debut for IRS, and that would be signs of things to come for his future in wrestling. Sting was so goofy and limited with his offense. His energy was great with the crowd hype, but the guy didn’t do much overall in the ring. Sting wins the match with a flying crossbody from the top rope into a three count. Too short to be special, but that was Sting when he wasn’t working with Ric Flair.

Scott Norton takes on Macho Man Randy Savage. Norton jumps Savage the second he gets in the ring. Norton continues to beat down Savage until Savage counters a top rope move and gets in some offense. The Dungeon of Doom(Avalanche and Kamala at first) interfere but Norton nails Avalanche. Savage hits the flying elbow on Norton for the three count. Booty Man and Meng join them and scold Norton for not taking help. What a mess. Too bad; the match could’ve been more special.

My question here is how WCW can DQ Sabu AFTER the match for using a table but NOT DQ or END THE MATCH when there is physical involvement that messes with the Savage/Norton finish? Damn Ted Turner and his company. I’ll blame Bischoff instead.

It’s time for Luger vs Hogan in the main event with the World Title on the line!

Luger and Hogan wrestle for five minutes and Hogan hits his three moves of doom before nailing the legdrop. Hogan is about to get the three count but the Dungeon of Doom run in and attack Hogan. Savage and Sting make the save. Sting, Savage, Luger and Hogan all stand around bickering before going to commericial.

Mean Gene interviews Hogan after the commercial. Hogan wants to know why the Dungeon of Doom didn’t attack Luger. Sting jumps on the mic and backs Luger. He wants Luger on their team for Fall Brawl. Macho doesn’t want Luger because he doesn’t trust him. Savage asks Sting why the Dungeon didn’t touch Jimmy or Sting either. They drag this out forever and end up putting Luger on their team. Horrible face promo work.

So, Hogan and Luger were only going to give us a five minute match without that interference? Way to make us believe in your product, Bischoff. This was what I consider to be a mess of an episode. Nothing delivered or lasted long enough to be remembered. It was a real step down compared to what we saw last week. 2/10

Next week we have Johnny B Badd taking on Paul Orndorff, and we’ll also see the Blue Bloods taking either the American Males or the Nasty Boys(they will face off on Main Event to determine which team goes to Nitro).

Thanks for reading!