The 1996 project - February week 2
We have Superbrawls, a great trios match, a Nitro that just was INFURIATING and an AJW main event that’s one of the best of 1996 this week!
We begin this week with some CMLL as El Dandy (who we should never doubt according to Bret Hart), El Hijo del Santo and Silver King take on Negro Casas, Apolo Dantes and El Satanico.
First off I have to point out how I always have loved the passion of the crowds at lucha shows in the same way as I do for puro (despite what certain wrestlers said on their WWE DVD about the latter being too quiet.)
This trios match also builds off nicely the rivalries between Casas and Santo and Dandy/Satanico as we see right off the bat Satanico – who for a guy named that has some pretty jaunty jolly entrance music - going after Dandy with a technical attack on the right arm that Dandy quickly counters into a hammerlock (Satanico tapping his shoulder in any other company though… quick end to the first fall. Not here…) More wrist/leg holds with armdrags , armbar and a bow and arrow lock follow in a back and forth until Apolo and Silver King are tagged in.
Dantes and Silver go more towards the clotheslines and dropkicks with King getting the advantage with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker as both go to the outside leading to Santo vs Casas and the crowd plus commentary really go wild for this portion of the first fall!
The first fall ends when Satanico submits Dandy to the Gory special We then get all the heels attack Silver King until Santo manages to get him out of there via pulling him to the outside, Dantes noticing this grabs Santo and throws him into the ring post. The heels then gain the advantage keeping King out of the ring and attack Dandy inside one by one, Santo attempts to make the save but foolishly goes after Casa and gets beatdown until we get the free for all as each rival squares off in a corner.
Santos and Casas get the main focus as Casas stops a Santo superplex then again tries to avoid a dive but gets a hard dropkick to the back of the head delivered through the ropes, Dandy and Satanico then enter with Satanico hitting Dandy with a running knew then getting a two count in our first pinfall attempt of the match.
The heels then attack the faces until each step outside leading to El Dandy doing his don’t doubt me comeback hitting a knee on Casas while King superkicks Satanico. Santo then trips up Casas flying him into the ropes, Dantes interferes until King and Dandy drag him out but quickly Casas rolls up Santo for the sneaky pin and the win for the rudos 2-0 although the ref didn’t notice Santo’s shoulder…
This week we just have WCW out of the ‘big 2’ to talk about so let’s get to it!
WCW Saturday Night this week is the go home show for Superbrawl and begins with Sting FINALLY confronting Lex over his recent actions, proclaiming he’s sick of defending the belts with someone that wants to cheat, Lex begs for another chance and gets it but is told it’s the last one.
Superbrawl also gets an extra match as Road Warriors get a shot against the winners of Harlem Heat/Lex and Sting later that night.
The only other notable moment is Randy Savage vs Benoit (fyi he was the wrestler alluding to quiet puro crowds.) which is again fine until the Horsemen interfere and while it’s great to see a Horsemen beatdown we get Tony and Dusty being concerned that HOGAN is watching it at home… when Savage’s getting beat up. So ridiculous and of course it leads to the usual crap from Hogan.
When it comes to Superbrawl itself here what’s notable: DDP losing the rest of the money to Johnny B Leaving soon and starting an arc that in a few months is the first sign of a BIG moment in WCW – one that not many people have realised including myself until very recently.
Sting and Luger win their first defence on this night via Road Warriors hitting Stevie Ray with a weapon – Sting noticeably on the outside while Luger’s happy to take the win – technically he didn’t cause the interference, so he kept his word! The second defence – double count out.
We have a new champion in Ric Flair after MISS ELIZABETH turns on Savage and joins the entourage of the horsemen – still quite the moment even today as it was her big heel turn – something she’d essentially be until WCW closed.
Giant/Hogan – come on it’s obvious who won that right? Giant Haystacks turns up too – and does nothing of note while in WCW. (It didn’t help that sadly he was diagnosed with cancer not long after arriving there.)
The most notable part of this show however is the Taskmaster/Pillman incident – Pillman decides to end the match by saying that he respects the BOOKERMAN and leaves leading to everyone being very confused and Arn Anderson taking his place.
Of course what we know now is that this was all part of the Loose Cannon deal Pillman created as he got into an ‘argument’ with Bischoff backstage and is only vaguely mentioned on Nitro. The most hilarious thing is that the only guy in the back that figured it was a work according to the Observer – Disco Inferno. Two other people told Wade Keller about it being a work as well.
Nitro is notable only for Hogan losing by pinfall to Arn but treating it like a joke right down to the usual crap from Hogan – and the fans are starting to realise it too as Arn winning and Flair helping him get it gets more cheers. Apparently Hogan knew this and asked for the loss but if he really meant it he wouldn’t get up SECONDS LATER.
No Raw this week because of the dog show so we have some All Japan Women with a great main event:
Chaparita Asari/Double Inoue (Kyoko Inoue/Takako Inoue)/Kumiko Maekawa/Tomoko Watanabe vs Manami Toyota/Kaoru Ito/Mariko Yoshida/Yumi Fukawa (5 on 4 Handicap Captain’s Fall Survival War)
What a wonderful palate cleanser this is after the crap that is Nitro – Double Inoue, Manami Toyota, Asari and Yumi doing great things here and a lot of high flying, fast paced action which doesn’t let up. Must see watch and thankfully you can as linked above!
ECW Hardcore TV closes the week with part 2 of Big Apple Blizzard Blast and begins with Saturn shaving the rest of his hair while YELLING at RANDOM points of his PROMO while Kronus just giggles.
We cut to Fonzie saying 911 isn’t here leading to Rey Mysterio cutting his first promo and prepares to fight Taz but his springboard dropkick gets countered with a T-bone Tazplex, Rey quickly hits a rana but is then given an Overhead Tazplex to put him down, JT Smith then decides to ‘help’ Rey because they’re practically related (remember the whole deal is head trauma is funny and made him think he’s Italian. Ugh.) Hack Myers then beats up JT. Woman then turns up to try and convince Joey to join her on Monday nights and cue the Sandman who reiterates that he’s not going to come with her (while his back’s to the camera) and we repeat the deal from Philly where Woman gets taken out of the arena. Yes they felt the need to do it twice.
We cut back to Stevie and Meanie in the ring with Sandman as Stevie says Raven has given him chance to back out of the title match – Sandman gives his answer by caning the Meanie after Meanie tries to Steviekick him (NYC fat shaming him all the way because… ugh.)
Raven then comes out to get the answer for himself, calls Stevie a moron, calls Meanie fat and then blames Stevie for not giving Beulah her birth control pills – to which I have to go isn’t that essentially coercive control?! At the very least it restricts Beulah’s right to choose. After getting the shit beat out of him Stevie then announces he’s going to sue Missy Hyatt for sexual harassment.
Yes – we’re doing that. *sigh*
Missy then turns up to call bullshit on this to which Raven offers her a place in the Nest, she mocks his penis size and sperm count oh and calls Kimona a whore. Raven then proclaims he’s going to beat her up until Sandman saves her and it looks like we’ve got a new partnership.
The original Mami if you will to Sandman’s Dom and thankfully this LONG AS FUCK segment ends.
Dreamer and Franchise versus Stevie and Raven follows with Stevie putting on a Razor t-shirt to ‘antagonise’ Shane to start, this naturally just leads to Richards getting beat up, cut to Cactus Jack trying to interfere and almost costing Shane and Tommy the match then Sandman comes out to cane everyone including the ref.
Match ends with Dreamer pinning Stevie after a frying pan assisted superkick.
Taz is next destroying Shark Attack Kid and then calls out anyone to face him… since 911 was fired backstage. Cue Bam Bam Bigelow after Fonzie and Taz try to beat down Tod Gordon as the credits roll…
See you all next time in which a Loose Cannon ends up making a trip to Philly….