A brief “In Memorial” image opened the show with silence with a picture of Jake Roberts who passed away yesterday from an apparent drug overdose. RIP Jake The Snake.
The opening video hyped Clash of the Champions, especially the WCW World Championship match between Christian Cage and Abyss and the tag team match between DDP/Sting and Jeff Jarrett/Monty Brown.
Commentary hyped the Main Event, pointing out this will be the first time that Ron Killings has competed on Nitro in over two months!
Elix Skipper vs. Fergal Devitt
Another good showing for Fergal Devitt, with a bit of a twist that in this match Elix’s manager and tag team partner (Simond Diamond and David Young) attempted to interfere to help Skipper get the win. This resulted in Devitt diving out of the ring and onto Diamond and Young, leading to them being evicted from the ringside area. With it just being one on one, Devitt managed to pull off the victory over the veteran Skipper.
Result: In a bout that had decent wrestling but little heat, Fergal Devitt defeated Elix Skipper in 8:16 by submission with a Devitt's End. (51)
Christy Hemme interviewed Christopher Daniels who had been cleared to wrestle and would be returning to action next week. Daniels spoke about the match at WCW Clash of the Champions between Samoa Joe and AJ Styles, with Daniels talking about how he would have Styles back in that match if Joe tried to hurt Styles like he had to Daniels.
In a pre-taped video, Konnan spoke for LAX and introduced the world to the newest LAX member Machete, and promised that he was even more ruthless than Apollo, which the James Gang would find out at WCW Clash of the Champions.
Cassidy Riley vs. “The Gladiator” Mike Awesome
Cassidy actually managed to put up a bit of a fight against Awesome, but it did not last long and soon he fell victim to an Awesome Splash.
Result: In an extremely short match, Mike Awesome defeated Cassidy Riley in 2:33 by pinfall with an Awesome Splash. (44)
After the match Larry Zbyszko joined Mike Awesome in the ring and prepared to put Cassidy Riley through a table outside if Raven didn’t come out and accept the match against Mike Awesome at WCW Clash of the Champions, with Raven’s career on the line. Raven comes out and says he will accept the match on two conditions, Awesome needed to drop Riley right now….and Raven would put his career on the line….if Larry agrees to put his role as WCW Commissioner on the line as well! After thinking it over, Larry agrees and orders Awesome to drop Riley and the match is official!
A video played that recapped the tournament for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, the match between Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt with Lethal winning, and a reminder that Jay Lethal is scheduled to defend the WCW Cruiserweight Championship against the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger at WCW Clash of the Champions.
Shane Douglas was backstage with WCW Cruiserweight Champion Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt prior to their upcoming tag team match and tried to sow some discord based on their match at WCW Superbrawl, but the two friends seemed to blow it off and promised to be on the same page for the match against Team Canada.
Jay Lethal/Sonjay Dutt vs. Team Canada (Petey Williams/Tyson Dux)
This was a hard-fought match, with Lethal and Dutt looking like they were going to get the victory throughout most of the match until there was a miscommunication at the end and Dutt ended up nailing Lethal with a jumping kick that allowed Dux to connect with the Dux Driver and get the victory over the WCW Cruiserweight Champion!
Result: In a bout that had sub-par wrestling and little heat, Tyson Dux and Petey Williams defeated Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt in 7:49 when Tyson Dux pinned Jay Lethal with a Dux Driver after Sonjay Dutt accidentally struck Jay Lethal. (42)
WCW Control Center with Don West! West went through the announced matches, and then closed by having comments from Christian Cage and James Mitchell to hype the Full Metal Mayhem match between Christian Cage and Abyss for the WCW World Championship at WCW Clash of the Champions XXXVI: The Big Easy Brawl.
Team 3D and America’s Most Wanted, with Gail Kim, had a confrontation in the middle of the ring with Team 3D goading America’s Most Wanted into giving them another match for the WCW World Tag Team Championship at WCW Clash of the Champions, due to Team 3D getting the pin fall last week in the Main Event. Brother Ray used his microphone skills to push even further, and got Gail Kim to accept a tables match for Clash of the Champions on behalf of the Champions who did not look very pleased!
Ron Killings vs. Sean Waltman
Killings appeared to be a bit rusty to start this match off, which Sean Waltman was quick to take advantage of as quickly as possible. A heated finished saw Killings hit a series of moves to weaken Sean Waltman, before finishing Waltman off with a Truth or Consequences.
Result: In a bout that had good heat and decent wrestling, Ron Killings defeated Sean Waltman in 11:16 by pinfall with a Truth or Consequences. (51)
As the show ended, we got footage of Jeff Jarrett having dragged a cameraman up into the rafters (with the camera shaking at points throughout), where Jarrett talking about not being afraid of the “spooky” Sting, before going off on DDP for not minding his own business, and finished the show off by talking about how he will become the #1 Contender to the WCW World Championship and will get his belt back “now choke on that.”
Overall Rating: 60, TV Rating: 0.74. With a lot of focus being on building towards Clash of the Champions, this was actually a pretty tight knit show that did a good job of progressing and building towards it with the addition of stakes and some new matches.
