WCW From the Beginning

MONDAY NITRO (Feb. 24, 1997)

In-ring interview with Harlem Heat

Nitro opened with new world tag team champions Harlem Heat coming to the ring with a huge ovation to talk about their win last night over The Outsiders, and how it was the first piece in bringing the nWo crumbling down. 

However, they were interrupted by Hall, Nash and Rick Rude. Rude said as it turns out, Booker T was not the legal man when he pinned Hall, so under his power as WCW EVP, he is stripping Harlem Heat of the titles and handing them back over to The Outsiders. Heat responded that they will hand over the belts over their dead bodies. 

When it looked like a fight was about to break out, music played and for the first time since Starrcade, Eric Bischoff made his return to Nitro. He got in the ring by Harlem Heat's side. He talked amongst them for a minute before turning his attention to Rude.

He made an offer, Harlem Heat will turn the belts over under one condition. At Uncensored, they settle this once and for all, WCW vs nWo, one match winner takes all. Championships and power. Rude said they need some time to iron out specifics, but it sounds like he has a deal.

Villano V, Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis defeated Mr. J.L., Super Calo and Silver King when Juventud pinned J.L. after a backslide in 11:23.
Rating: ***

Six Cruiserweights all vying to get themselves noticed by the championship committee put on a high-flying show that ended with Juvenetud Guerrera catching JL in a backslide.

Disco Inferno pinned M. Wallstreet with the Last Dance in 9:14.
Rating: * ¾

Disco Inferno carried his momentum from beating Chris Candido into another big win tonight, but after the match, was ambushed by Candido with a chair. 

Candido sat down on the chair next to a nearly unconscious Disco and told him, he comes out here every week with all his dancers, thinking he's God's gift to women. But there is no way he will ever have Tammy, because Disco is nowhere near the man Candido is. 

Interview with Konnan

New TV champion Konnan came out for an interview mocking Eddie Guerrero. He said if Guerrero wants another shot, he should walk out here and come get his belt back, but oh wait, that's right. Eddie can't walk right now. Konnan said any other potential challengers take note, if they step to Konnan, they'll end up the same way.

Interview with The Four Horsemen

Prior to a match, Ric Flair came out and introduced all four Horsemen, including Marcus Bagwell. Flair said sometimes it takes a good friend and loyal soldier to get you to look in a mirror and realize you’re making bad decisions. But the Horsemen are as solid as ever and will show it tonight.

Arn Anderson, Marcus Bagwell, Davey Boy Smith and Ric Flair defeated The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom), Shark and The Boss when D.B. Smith pinned Shark with the Running Powerslam in 14:53.
Rating: ** 3/4

After ironing out their differences, the Horsemen were back united. They showcased their unity with an 8-man tag win. After the match, Flair made a declaration, saying the Horsemen may have taken the wrong road, but they are 100% WCW and whatever Eric Bischoff has in mind for Uncensored, they want in. 

The losing 8 man team put all the blame on Shark for the loss, as the Destruction Crew and the Boss, all jumped Shark after the match. 

Promo for Prince Iaukea

A video played promoting the arrival of Prince Iaukea to the Cruiserweight division, billed as one of the top cruiserweights in the pacific rim. He’ll make his debut next week.

Johnny B. Badd pinned Scott Norton with the Tutti Frutti in 14:13.
Rating: 3/4*

Johnny B. Badd hasn’t been on the winning end of many of his battles against the nWo but he caught fire tonight and hit Scott Norton with a knockout punch.

Curt Hennig pinned Lex Luger with the Hennig Plex in 16:57.
Rating: DUD

In the main event, Luger finally got a one-on-one match with Curt Hennig but he had to know that wasn't how things were going to go. The nWo made their collective presence felt helping Hennig get the win, and that included newest member Macho Man Randy Savage.

But of all people coming to Luger's aid, it was Diamond Dallas Page who ran in fought off Savage, getting revenge for Superbrawl. After the nWo cleared out, DDP helped Luger to his feet, Luger was unsure of what to do. But when DDP extended his hand, Luger took a minute, but eventually shook it. 

Card rating: *

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MONDAY NITRO (March 3, 1997)

In-ring promo from Eric Bischoff

Eric Bischoff opened Nitro in the ring announcing they have made a deal with the nWo for the Uncensored main event. It will be an 8-on-8 tag team elimination match. If the nWo wins, they get full branding rights over the titles, PPVs and Monday Nitro. They all will become official nWo properties. 

If WCW wins, Bischoff gets his old position back as EVP from Rick Rude, and WCW will be able to challenge for any title the nWo holds at any time it choses. 

This brought out Ric Flair and the Horsemen who approached Bischoff and said they want to be represented on Team WCW. To this, Luger and Vader came to the ring to ask the Horsemen why they should trust them now after months of them fighting against them. The sides exchanged words and it was decided that they will team up tonight in an 8 man match against the nWo, Flair and Anderson will fight alongside Vader and Luger. 

Konnan defeated Ice Train when Ice Train passed out to the Tequila Sunrise in 9:03.
Rating: * 3/4
(Konnan retained the WCW TELEVISION TITLE.)

Konnan successfully defended his TV belt against Ice Train, beating him with the Tequila Sunrise. Once again, Konnan kept on the hold a long time after the bell, and after the match, Ice Train needed to be helped to the back.

Billy Kidman pinned Pat Tanaka with the shooting star press in 13:28.
Rating: ***
(Prince Iaukea no-showed.)

Prince Iaukea was set to make his WCW debut tonight, but he was found unconscious in the back right before his match. Instead, Billy Kidman took his place and picked up one of the biggest wins of his career beating Pat Tanaka.

No-Time-Limit-Match:
Dean Malenko made Wrath submit to the Texas Cloverleaf in 11:02.
Rating: ** ½

Dean Malenko has been trying to prove for weeks he can take down even the biggest of men to send a message to Wrath. Tonight he proved his point against Wrath himself.

The Boss pinned Shark after an enzuigiri in 7:49.
Rating: *

Boss defeated Shark with some help from the Destruction Crew. After the match, Boss pulled out hair clippers and while Shark was knocked unconscious, Boss shaved half of Shark's head.

Harlem Heat (Stevie Ray and Booker T) defeated The Headbangers (Headbanger Moshand Headbanger Thrasher) when Booker pinned Thrasher with the Missile Dropkick in 16:23.
Rating: ** 1/2
(Harlem Heat retained the WCW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES.)

After Harlem Heat's win, Eric Bischoff came to the ring and asked the brothers if they would join team WCW at Uncensored. They enthusiastically accepted.

Marcus Bagwell, Ric Flair, Lex Luger and Big Van Vader defeated The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall), Curt Hennig and Randy Savage when Luger made Curt Hennig submit to the Torture Rack in 20:26.
Rating: ** 1/4

The Horsemen worked well along with Luger and Vader, showing they can come together to fight for the same cause. A huge brawl ensued after the match as the rest of the nWo members came down, but WCW had support from Harlem Heat, Rick Steiner, Steve Austin and DDP. 

The brawl was wild, but at one point, Ric Flair was all by himself with his back to the entrance way, when Jeff Jarrett came down and smacked Flair over the head with a guitar before leaving.

Card rating: ** 1/4

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MONDAY NITRO SPRING BREAK (March 10, 1997)

Billy Kidman pinned Chris Candido with the Shooting Star Press in 11:58.
Rating: *** ¼

Billy Kidman, fresh off a win last week, got another one, though this one came after Disco Inferno laid out Chris Candido while the referee was down. Candido was livid after the match and challenged Disco to one more match at Uncensored, and he will put Tammy on the line.

nWo in-ring promo

The nWo were all in the ring giving a promo about how everyone should soak in the scene. This will be the last time you see the WCW logo on this show. After next week, this will all be nWo Nitro. Rude said how Bischoff has been going around, recruiting his team, and it's nice to know who you're facing. 

But when it comes to the nWo, the 8 guys representing the most dominant force in wrestling, might be in the ring right now, but maybe some aren't, leaving the door open for some potential surprises.

Rude said that anyone wearing the black and white nWo colors, will be someone WCW needs to watch out for. He looked up when he said that, but then corrected himself saying “oh right, there’s no rafters here.”

Konnan made Psicosis submit to the Tequila Sunrise in 8:00.
Rating: *** 3/4
(Konnan retained the WCW TELEVISION TITLE.)

Konnan had another successful TV title defense and again after the match kept Psicosis locked in his hold. But before too much damage could be done, Eddie Guerrero made his return, rushing in and attacking Konnan, making the save for Psicosis. 

Interview with Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett, sporting a new look with short blonde hair, was interviewed by Gene Okerlund who asked him point blank if after last week if he was now in the nWo. Jarrett said don't be an idiot. He's been out injured for the past 6 months because of Ric Flair. Ever since he signed with WCW a year ago, Ric Flair has been the bane of his existence. So he doesn't care if he's WCW or nWo, Jeff Jarrett is anti-Ric Flair.

Scott Steiner made Bobby Eaton submit to a Fujiwara armbar in 9:46.
Rating: *** 1/4

Bobby Eaton has been a vocal critic of Scott Steiner’s change in attitude saying this can’t be the same person he went to war with in the early 1990s. 

Steiner sent a message tonight with a brutal victory over Eaton. But after the match, Rick Steiner ran in to attack his brother. 

Scott ran out of the ring, saying he guess he didn’t prove his point at Superbrawl. He challenged Rick to a First Blood match at Uncensored.

Davey Boy Smith and Marcus Bagwell defeated The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom) when Bagwell pinned Enos after a tiger suplex in 14:31.
Rating: **

The Horsemen scored a win over the nWo’s associates, showcasing they still are a united group.

Arn Anderson came out after the match and had words for Jeff Jarrett. He said he doesn’t care if Jarrett is or isn’t nWo, he crossed the line. There’s nothing more he’d like to do than whoop Jarrett’s ass, but you can’t keep Ric Flair down for long. Flair will be back at Uncensored, ready for war with Jarrett. Meanwhile, he said he got done talking to Eric Bischoff, and Anderson and Bagwell will be fighting with WCW against the nWo.

Johnny B. Badd pinned Carl Ouellet after a powerslam in 3:34.
Rating: * ¼

Carl Ouellet has taken exception to Badd saying he’s got the best knockout punch in WCW. So he challenged him to a match tonight, where Badd got the win, catching Ouellet with a powerslam. 

Ouellet took a mic after and asked Badd “If you really call that a win? I thought you were gonna knock me out.”

The two went back and forth before settling on fighting again at Uncensored in a Texas Death Match.

Stone Cold Steve Austin pinned Randy Savage in 14:44.
Rating: **
(Stone Cold Steve Austin retained the WCW UNITED STATES TITLE.)

Randy Savage was the latest nWo member to try to beat Austin for the US title and actually probably came the closest out of anyone. 

That wasn’t much to do with anything he did as much as it was other nWo interference. But fortunately Austin had a helping hand, whether he knew it or not in DDP. 

As Rick Rude had the ref distracted, Kevin Nash had just powerbombed Austin, leaving him prey for Macho Man’s elbow drop. But DDP came out, met Savage on the top rope and hit a Diamond Cutter coming off of it. 

DDP then went outside and dove into Nash, as Austin crawled over and draped an arm around Savage to get the pin as the ref came back. 

That however began a huge brawl, nWo vs. WCW. But in the middle of it all, the lights around ringside momentarily went out, the came back in a bright white glow. Then a dark silhouette of a Crow formed on the ring. 

Card rating: ** 1/2

UNCENSORED '97 (March 16, 1997)

Disco Inferno pinned Chris Candido after The Last Dance in 8:24.
Rating: ** ½

Disco got the win and due to the stipulation, got possession of Tammy. But after the match, he took a mic and told Tammy he doesn't feel women should be a thing anyone should be able to "win." So he will let her choose her own path, if she wants to come with Disco great, if she wants to stay with Chris that's fine too. 

Candido grabbed Tammy by the hand and tried to lead her out of the ring before she could answer, but Tammy instead kicked him in the groin, then took Disco's hand and the two danced their way to the back.

BACKSTAGE

The cameras went backstage where Stevie Ray was laying face down unconscious. Many of the Team WCW members came to the scene trying to help him out. Some nWo members were on the scene as well and the WCW members were quick to pass blame, although the nWo denied having anything to do with it.

As Stevie was loaded into an ambulance, Bischoff gave a pep talk to the rest of Team WCW saying this was not over and there still is a strong enough team here to win this for WCW.

Falls Count Anywhere:

Konnan pinned Eddie Guerrero after an elbowdrop in 16:49.
Rating: *** 3/4
(Konnan retained the WCW TELEVISION TITLE.)

Eddie Guerrero and Konnan aimed to settle their feud. The match was pretty crazy and spilled out of the ring, into the crowd and went all around the arena. 

As the match wore on, it was evident Eddie’s knee wasn’t fully healed after Konnan’s attacks the past few months, and Konnan took advantage. 

Their fight went into the main concourse where Konnan rammed a hot dog cart into Guerrero’s leg to the point where Eddie was easy pickings to pin.

The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian) defeated The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom) when Barbarian pinned W. Bloom with the Flying Clothesline in 10:26.
Rating: * 1/4

The Faces of Fear went after the nWo associate’s the Destruction Crew and picked up a big win in the name of WCW. 

Texas Death Match:
Carl Ouellet pinned Johnny B. Badd with the Cannonball in 18:01.
Rating: ** 1/2

It would seem that with Ouellet’s size and strength advantage, Badd would be an easy opponent in this type of match, but Badd went toe to toe with him. Badd even nearly had Ouellet knocked out but he made it up at the count of 9. 

Ouellet though took over the match, got Badd down and delivered 5 straight cannonballs before Badd couldn’t get up. 

First Blood Match:
Scott Steiner defeated Rick Steiner in 15:26.
Rating: *** ¾

Rick Steiner has come a long way from hesitating to even hit his brother to trying everything he could to make him bleed. Rick and Scott exchanged chair shots and used a variety of other weapons on each other. 

In the end, Scott Steiner pulled Barbed wire out from under the ring and wrapped it around a baseball bat and ran it against Rick’s head until he finally busted open.

Ric Flair pinned Jeff Jarrett after a Victory Roll in 15:49.
Rating: ** 1/4

Ric Flair was out looking for revenge on Jeff Jarrett, while Jarrett had more than 6 months of animosity against Flair built up. Jarrett tried to take a page from Flair’s book and went after his legs, before trying to put on a Figure Four. 

But Flair wrapped up Jarrett and rolled him up for a pin. 

However, this only infuriated Jarrett, who took a guitar and smashed Flair over the head with it. He then locked in the Figure Four until the rest of the Horsemen ran down to chase Jarrett off. 

8-on-8 Elimination Match

WCW vs. nWo

The rules of the match where two men from each team would come to the ring at the start of each 3-minute round. Eliminations occur by pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope.

Things looked rough for Team WCW, entering the match down 8-7 when Stevie Ray was found unconscious and injured before the match. 

Vader and Booker T opened the match against Curt Hennig and Syxx. Vader and Booker got the best of things early, but right before the end of the round, Vader went to clothesline Hennig near the ropes, but Hennig ducked and Vader went over the top rope. 

The Outsiders came next for the nWo with Horsemen members Anderson and Bagwell came for WCW. The nWo had the numbers advantage and grew it more when Anderson was tossed out of the ring. 

Bradshaw and Norton came next for the nWo with Luger and DDP coming down for WCW. WCW started to even the odds a bit as Luger eliminated Hennig and Page took out Syxx. But Savage came down early and pulled out DDP from outside the ring to eliminate him. 

Soon Booker T was eliminated as the final round was set to begin as Hogan strutted down to the ring. But the final WCW member coming down was Stone Cold Steve Austin who began cleaning house once he entered the ring. Out went Bradshaw, then Norton, then Savage. 

But Scott Steiner, who was not a part of the match, came to give the nWo a hand, bringing a lead pipe that he used to knock out Austin leading to his elimination. The Outsiders then double teamed Bagwell to eliminate him. 

It came down to Luger vs. Hall, Nash and Hogan. But Luger rallied. He caught Hall in a Torture Rack and got a quick submission, then did the same to Nash. 

Curt Hennig looked like he saved the day for the nWo when he fired spraypaint into Luger’s eyes, and Hogan then eliminated a blinded Luger. It looked like the nWo had won, but then fireworks exploded from near the rafters and a man came streaming down to the ring on a zipline. Bischoff came out with a mic and introduced the 8th member of Team WCW ... STING!!! Eliminated nWo members tried to charge Sting in the ring, but Sting had a bad and fought them all off. Then Sting grabbed Hogan, hit him with a Scorpion Death Drop and pinned him to win the day for WCW. 

After, Sting picked up a still-recovering Luger and gave his old friend a big hug. 

Elimination Match:
Big Van Vader, Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Lex Luger, Marcus Bagwell, Sting, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Arn Anderson beat The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall), Curt Hennig, Hollywood Hogan, Randy Savage, Syxx, Scott Norton and Justin Bradshaw in 23:05
Survivors: Sting

Rating: ** 1/4

Team WCW all came into the ring to celebrate, Eric Bischoff came down, even Stevie Ray came down to celebrate, showing that for the first time in almost a year, WCW had outsmarted the nWo, creating a fake injury to get Sting involved.

INSIDE THE WRITERS’ ROOM

In an exclusive for WCW VIP members, head writer Anthony Michaels will participate in a live AOL Chat where WCW fans can ask him questions about the behind the scenes dealings in WCW. 

First some opening comments from Anthony

Anthony: Thanks guys, so happy to be here. I think WCW is in a great spot right now. The nWo angle has been red hot and with what just happened at Uncensored, we’re ready to start the next chapter of the saga. The battle lines have been drawn, sides have been chosen, and we’re ready to go. I’ll now take any questions you guys have.

Q: Do you guys have an end game in mind for the nWo, how and when?

A: We definitely know how. When, honestly, is still up in the air. There’s a debate about how fast we want to move with it and there’s pros and cons to each side of the coin. Obviously I don’t want to spill future plans here, but we’re gonna make the best overall creative decisions we can. 

Q: Was there any debates about getting to where we are now with the nWo?

A: Oh yeah. There were some that wanted the nWo to be completely dominant and simply destroying WCW at every opportunity to make them seem unstoppable. But at the same time, the feeling was that would’ve made WCW look too pathetic which is what we didn’t want. We could’ve had the nWo beat up WCW guys each and every week, but logically, that didn’t make sense if WCW didn’t band together to help each other out. 

Q: Do the writers try to use logic a lot?

A: We try. For me, writing a story comes down to one thing, Does it make sense? I’ll give you an example. Some people wanted Eric Bischoff to turn out to be the one behind the nWo. To me that made no sense. Why? Why would Eric Bischoff the character do that? And nobody could give a good reason. So we held off that turn, kept Rick Rude as the manager/mouthpiece, which made sense considering how his in-ring career ended with his injury. Much more believeable that he had a huge grudge and wanted to destroy WCW. 

Q: Any other almost nWo members?

A: We had a few decisions to make. When it was revealed last year at Wargames DDP was with the nWo at the time, we considered a few others for that role. Vader was one. But we went with DDP knowing down the line his eventual turn back would give him a huge boost, which we think it did. He got a huge reaction in the leadup to Superbrawl and still gets big ovations from the crowd now. 

Q: Is Jeff Jarrett joining the nWo?

A: Once again not gonna spill future details, but I think Jeff can take his own path. It was important to us to not have every WCW story tied to the nWo. So we can have heels like Jarrett and Konnan stand on their own.

Q: So since they lost at Uncensored, does this mean we’re not getting nWo Nitro?

A: Correct. 

Q: Are we still gonna have other nWo events like Souled Out?

A: Hope not. 

Q: Who’s been a pleasant surprise to you?

A: I’ll give you two. 1. Stone Cold Steve Austin. We weren’t sure how his new gimmick was gonna take off but it’s been crazy how wild the fans get when you hear the glass shattering music and he runs down, beats someone up, then has a beer. And 2. Disco Inferno. When he first showed up, we had him as this cartoon character. He was entertaining, but he was a joke. So we tweaked him a bit, gave him a different outlook, let him come to the ring with hot women, which never disappoints the crowd, and he’s taken off. 

Q: Got any new guys coming in?

A: Oh yes, just keep watching. We’re negotiating with some big names and also some guys we think we can turn into big names in time. 

Q: Anyone on their way out the door?

A: We do have some contracts coming up, guys we hope we can re-sign. Two big ones are in the Horsemen, Arn Anderson and Davey Boy Smith both have contracts coming up. We’re negotiating with both. Arn though is thinking it might be time to hang them up and Davey has mentioned maybe wanting to go back North with his family. Though my sources within WWF say there’s a plan to have some 12 year old Samoan kid beat Bret Hart for the world title with one leaping punch, so who knows how that will play out. 

Alright guys, this has been fun. Time to log off for now. Hopefully we can do this again after some more of our big events. TTFN.