WCW Saturday Night 11/4/1995
Written by: Tom Hopkins
Halloween Havoc was just last Sunday! The Giant and Hogan battled and Jimmy Hart turned on Hogan! What is going on here?
Tony and Dusty are hosting this week and they’re complaining about Luger and Hart turning on Hogan. Dusty suggests we get a scorecard. Johnny B. Badd is the new US Champ, too!
–Disco Inferno vs. Bart Sawyer–
Disco is a character that has grown on me as I watch these shows. He’s just such a ridiculous character and over the top with his disco stuff that you just HAVE to hate him. Dusty is asked if he likes disco and Dusty says he’s a country boy and makes fun of Schiavone’s hush puppies. These two are always entertaining on commentary – basically because Dusty just has verbal diarrhea and you never know what’s going to come out of there next. Sawyer gets in some token offense and Dusty mentions that Disco Duck is in trouble. I remember that song playing in the Howard the Duck movie. If you’ve never seen it you really have to. You think the recent comic adaptations are bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Disco is sunset flipped over for two but Disco decides it’s time to assert his authority over Sawyer. Sawyer makes another comeback and hits a bulldog. He heads upstairs but misses a cross-body and Disco hits his swinging neckbreaker to end this at 4:01. I wonder why they made Disco look so weak this match. Sawyer literally carried it and Disco really only got a few moves of offense. It’s just a weird way to showcase new talent.
–Mr. Wonderful vs. Rick Garcia–
Wonderful hasn’t shown up to the ring yet so Nick Patrick looks for him. He finds him (Paul is on the phone with Spivey) and tells him he must come to the ring or he’ll be disqualified. Wonderful does get to the ring but the jobber really takes it to him and gets a couple of near-falls. Garcia blows a cross-body coming out of the corner (Dusty calls it pitiful) so Wonderful improvises and drops an elbow Garcia cradles him for two. Wonderful takes a powder as I reflect on Wonderful’s noticeably smaller and atrophied right arm. Garcia tries another leap off the top and this time he doesn’t blow it. He misses Wonderful and Wonderful ends with a piledriver at 4:56. This was really bad. DUD.
Last week on Main Event and Nitro we saw Heenan cavorting with a wealthy Japanese businessman. Heenan received an envelope on Nitro and on WCW Pro Bobby introduced this man. The man Heenan is with is Mr. Onoo. Heenan explains he has sold a half-hour of WCW Pro to Mr. Onoo. It seems that Onoo wants to showcase his talent on his half-hour.
–State Patrol vs. Nasty Boys–
Buddy Lee yells to the camera that they will give the Nasty Boys tickets for impersonating wrestlers. Knobbs and Lee (Crash Holly Sr.) start but seconds later all four are in the ring and quickly after that both State Patrol members are avalanched in the corner. Saggs tags in and he’s immediately caught in the State Patrol corner. That doesn’t last long and soon it is the Nasty’s that are “clubbering” away. The Nasty’s are ready for a pit-stop but Parker attacks Knobbs from behind with a nightstick to his knee and the announce team smells an upset. It seems State Patrol has been moving up the tag ranks but I’ve never actually seen them win so I don’t know how they are moving up. Buddy Lee hits a nice looking bulldog on Knobbs where Lee comes off the apron to bulldog Knobbs who is standing at ringside. Knobbs blocks a charge in the corner but gets chop-blocked so he can’t make the tag. State Patrol works the leg of Knobbs and this JTTS match has just improved. Knobbs escapes from a double-team and explodes out of the corner with a clothesline and he makes the hot tag to Sags (though the crowd was oblivious to the hot part). Sags clears the ring and the Boys put it away with a combo pump-handle slam/splash from the second rope at 5:57. This was actually a decent match in terms of its execution and psychology. It was really short because it was a TV match but it had the elements it needed to make it entertaining. **.
Gene interviews the Nasty’s after the match. I wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying – sorry.
Dusty and Tony discuss Giant stealing the WCW Title belt.
–VK Wallstreet vs. Mike Davis–
Neither man gets an introduction (unless it was cut out from here of course). VK puts Davis in an abdominal stretch 40-seconds into the match and he uses the ropes for extra leverage. Davis sunset flips Wallstreet for two so VK dumps him to reassert his dominance. A reverse chinlock is used and again VK uses the ropes. Wallstreeet is totally phoning it in tonight. VK misses a charge in the corner and is rolled up for two so he decides to end it right then and there with a Stock Market Crash (Samoan Drop) for the pinfall at 3:56. Not one of VK’s better matches.
–Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs. Dave Sullivan & Cobra–
Again there are no introductions. I’m guessing it’s just a rights issue on WWE’s end rather than the original show just not including it. Anderson actually gets the upper hand on Arn and I think Flair should’ve asked this guy for advice before their big match. Sullivan fell for hand-shake trick earlier to Arn and when Pillman tries it Dave turns the tables on him! Cobra comes with a big press-slam on Pillman. Cobra ends up battling Arn on the outside and reverses a piledrive attempt with a backdrop. Cobra heads upstairs but gets thrown off by Pillman. Arn hits a neckbreaker and tags in Pillman. Pillman and Arn go old-school with the double-teaming leading to Arn hitting a spinebuster. Dave runs in to cover Cobra (his teammate) so Pillman splashes both of them off the top, pushes Sullivan off and covers Cobra for the pinfall at 5:12. This was an interesting match. It seemed very back and forth and didn’t have a chance to develop any type of story. It was just your standard JTTS shortened TV match. *.
It’s time for the Nitro highlight video! Guerrero vs. Pittman, Shark vs. someone, Sabu vs. Disco Inferno, Luger with the Dungeon of Doom kill the American Males and the Giant has Hogan’s belt.
Okerlund talks about the Giant/Hogan Halloween Havoc match and we see the end of that battle. Hart turned on Hogan, the Yeti shows up, Luger turns on Savage, the Yeti humps Hogan and Luger puts Hogan in the Torture Rack. The next night Hart says he’ll tell us why he turned on Hogan NEXT week.
–The Bluebloods vs. Harlem Heat(c) (w/Sister Sherri) for the WCW Tag Titles–
The Bluebloods are Steve Regal and Earl Robert while Harlem Heat are Booker T and Stevie Ray. The Heat beat up the Bluebloods on Nitro a few weeks back. The Bluebloods attack Heat on the way in but Harlem Heat quickly turn the tables and take control. Robert is tossed and smacked by Sherri. We take a break and return with Regal being worked over by the Heat. Booker hits Regal with a nice super-kick before giving way to his brother. Stevie is caught in the Bluebloods corner and their heel control portion is uninteresting and ultimately goes nowhere fast. Stevie doesn’t even make a comeback; he just walks over to Booker and tags him in. Booker hits a heel kick on Robert for two. Booker ends up being face in peril although there was no lead-up to it and it just sort of happened. This is very cookie-cutter. It’s like they knew they needed to have the heels control but there was no build-up to it. The Bluebloods are focusing on the arm of Booker T. Sherri slides into the ring to try and revive Booker leading to Dusty calling for the cameraman to be on the other side so he could look up her skirt. I don’t think I’d even want to see that. Stevie runs in but he’s escorted back to his corner so Regal tosses Booker T over the top rope to the outside. Booker T is brought back into the ring and he fights out of the corner and covers for two. That’s just a sign of people who don’t know what to do – that was an obvious spot to tag in your partner. Booker even gets to his corner but doesn’t tag and lets Regal come by to knock Stevie away. Regal hits a double underhook suplex for two. Booker ducks a clothesline, hits one of his own and tags in Stevie. Stevie cleans house and Booker comes right back in to hit an elbow off the knee of Stevie. He covers but Robert breaks up the pinfall. A neckbreaker connects on the mat as Stevie boots at Regal. Regal puts Booker in the Regal stretch and Sherri tries hitting Regal with her shoe. So Col. Parker runs out, takes the shoe and whacks Regal with it to. Booker covers for the pinfall at 13:09 as Parker carries Sherri to the back. This was an example of match where the participants just didn’t know when to time their big comeback spots. It was just erratic in terms of how it was executed and it was almost like we have to get from point A to point B and we just don’t know how to get there. This was way too long, too. ½*.
Next week on Saturday Night we’ll see Arn vs. Kurusawa, Disco’s new video, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan goes to Ireland. Well two of those things look either interesting or entertaining.
Gene talks to Pillman and Anderson about the betrayal at Halloween Havoc. For those who don’t know (and it was NEVER mentioned on here): Flair turned on his partner Sting during his tag match with Arn and Pillman. Arn says that he and Ric were much better together than they were apart and Arn suggests a Four Horsemen revival. Flair shows up and well, who’s the fourth man?
–The Bottom Line–
I think that when the Nasty Boys gets Match of the Night Honors in an extended squash you have a bit of a problem. The long main event match was a mess in terms of execution and really lacked a story or thread that connected the big spots. Everything just seemed lackluster and it showed. This is definitely one of the weakest episodes of Saturday Night that I can remember since the show started on Classics. Recommendation to avoid.