WCW Monday Nitro - September 18th 1995

• The night after Fall Brawl kicks off with some big news; Steve “Mongo” McMichaels’ dog Pepe will be a permanent addition to the commentary team. Backstage, Mene Gene is waiting to interview The Taskmaster and The Giant who arrive in an ambulance. They certainly have a flair for the dramatic. The Giant says that he loves to think about how Hogan left Fall Brawl in an ambulance and that he is NOT the one true immortal, The Giant is. Gene mentions The Giant’s father - he means Andre the Giant. Not really, obviously but that was the gimmick. Giant claimed to be Andre’s son and says that if his father was still alive, he’d be right by his side helping him destroy Hulkamania. He’s probably right; Andre would have needed a payday and standing with the Dungeon of Doom would have been an easy one.

• Scotty Riggs and Marcus Alexander Bagwell - the American Males - take on The Blue Bloods. They are dressed like male strippers, but I'm not sure if that was the gimmick or not. Bagwell looks quite a lot like George Michael. The Blue Bloods are the team of Lord Steven Regal and Sir Bobby Eaton Esquire, but their entrance is ruined as new World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat jump them from behind and apparently take their place? Booker T and Stevie Ray want TV time and attention and get it by offering American Males an impromptu title match right now! Booker T is a lot better than his brother Stevie Ray and shows off with big heel kicks and axe kicks. Bischoff on commentary compares him to a kick boxer and name drops K-1 and the UFC, as well as New Japan Pro Wrestling. He is a hell of a salesman, mentioning over and over that the show is Live and hyping up that WCW is scouring the world for the best talent. It’s such a departure from the WWF in this era who would never mention other companies or organisations. Sister Sherri tries to help Harlem Heat pick up the win but Col. Rob Parker comes down to rekindle their romance from last night. He distracts her and with Booker T watching that unfold, Bagwell rolls him up and the American Males are the new World Tag Team Champions only 24 hours after Booker and Stevie won them! 

• In the ring, Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair who says that last night Arn Anderson broke the code; the Horsemen might fight between themselves from time to time but he brought in an outsider to do his dirty work. Flyin’ Brian Pillman helped Arn beat Flair last night so tonight, Flair faces Pillman in the ring. The Nature Boy promises to chop Pillman so hard that some famous football player will feel it (I didn’t get the reference) and then he’s going to find AA and kick his ass too.

• Debuting new theme music and pyro, Paul Orndorff has his mojo back. Mr. Wonderful has a new “in love with himself” gimmick and comes out in a sparkly entrance jacket and a mirror to admire himself. The song is an opera singer with a high voice singing about how wonderful Mr. Wonderful is. The commentators act like it's disgusting and the worst thing they’ve ever heard. That’s kind of mean. His opponent is Johnny B Badd who has a shot at the United States title coming up. Basically neither of these men can afford to lose this match but Orndorff reverses a piledriver attempt into a roll up. It looked like Badd’s shoulders were up but the referee counts three anyway and Mr. Wonderful picks up the win.

• In one of the more “wow, it really is the 90s” segments I’ve ever seen, Eric Bischoff brings us behind the scenes footage from WCW’s recent appearance on Baywatch. The Taskmaster attacked Macho Man Randy Savage until Ric Flair of all people made the save. Interestingly he kept calling Taskmaster “devil” which is a cooler name. That then leads into another Mean Gene in ring interview this time with Randy Savage himself. Randy is asked how he feels about Flair saving him and he gives a firm “thanks but no thanks” and has no interest in behind his friend. He then says that you kill a snake by removing its head so he will destroy The Taskmaster to end The Dungeon of Doom. Macho Man has a message for Hulk Hogan who is at home injured; he is a horrible judge of character. He shouldn’t have trusted Lex Lugar who has a secret agenda and who cheap shotted him. Gene says that some people don’t agree and Randy fires up and takes a cheap shot at both Jimmy Hart and Sting for being Lex’s best friends. Randy says that you’re either with him or you’re against him and he thinks the DoD has three new members in Lugar, Sting and Jimmy Hart! That brings Lugar down to defend himself and he flips it around and accuses Savage of being jealous of him and of also wanting a shot at Hogan’s WCW World title but not being as direct about it as The Total Package has been. Savage puts that aside and asks why he cheap shotted him at WarGames. Lugar says that as far as he’s concerned, Savage is the one who cheapshotted him! They both want to wrestle right here, right now and while Gene tries to settle things down the show goes to a commercial break. I liked this and I like this story they’re telling.

• Before the main event, we get footage from yesterday where after The Giant crushed Hulk Hogan’s motorbike with a monster truck (yes, really) he also came out at the end of the PPV and apparently snapped Hogan’s neck. The Hulkster has been in hospital ever since. I’m sure we’ll see him again soon.

• The Nature Boy Ric Flair battles Brian Pillman. Both these men are coming off losses at the PPV, but Pillman caused Flair’s! He chops and struts and bounces Pillman around as the fans cheer and WOOO for him. It’s a good but short match, and Flair wins by submission with the Figure Four. He won’t leave the ring and demands Arn Anderson come out and face him. If he won’t come out tonight, he’ll see him next Monday on Nitro! 

WCW Monday Nitro - September 25th 1995

• We waste no time this week and head into the Nitro debut of Disco Inferno. He disco dances to the ring looking like John Travolta as Eric Bischoff says the theme music is crap. He has a strong showing against Alex Wright but to my shock, loses his debut match to a roll up from the German! He protests about his tights being pulled after the match but the referee is unmoved as am I.

• In a pre-taped interview, Hulk Hogan in a neck brace challenges The Giant to a pair of matches at Halloween Havoc - a sumo monster truck match where their monster trucks will be joined at the bumper and they’ll battle, sumo rules and then later that same night a match for the WCW World Heavyweight title. The monster truck sumo match sounds stupid - I’m excited already! Whatcha gonna do etc etc.

• After a replay of last week's confrontation between Lex Lugar and Macho Man, Mene Gene interviews Randy in the ring again and this week Lex Lugar comes straight out to pick up where they left off. Lex says that Macho has been on his case since he arrived and the problem is respect; Sting respects him and even Hogan respects him but Macho Man needs respect beaten into him. He challenges him to a match right here on Nitro next week. Randy Savage agrees. Lex says they should make it extra interesting and not only will he put his future WCW title match on the line but if he loses then he will LEAVE WCW. No one asked him to do that? It’s official for next week. 

• Kurasawa, with his manager Rob Parker, takes on Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman. This is really brutal and physical - Kurasawa looks like a killer, slamming Pittman on the concrete on the outside and finishing him off with a bridging German suplex. The match was nothing but Kurasawa looked great. He broke Road Warrior Hawk’s arm a few weeks ago apparently! 

• In the ring, Mean Gene interviews Arn Anderson and his apparently new protege Brian Pillman. Flyin’ Brian says that Flair is on the downswing, crawling around like gutter slime and worse than he’s ever been. Arn says that Flair always had him to watch his back but now he’s on his own and against a united Anderson and Pillman he has no chance. Seems like we’re building to a tag team match, if Flair can find himself a partner. 

• In the main event, Macho Man takes on The Taskmaster. The leader of the Dungeon of Doom has The Zodiac with him who takes cheap shot after cheap shot at Savage while allows Taskmaster to work him over for a while in the ring. It breaks down when Zodiak keeps interfering and ends via disqualification. Macho Man stacks the two DoD members up and crushes them with a diving elbow drop. He hammers on Taskmaster until The Giant comes down and flattens him with the world’s biggest chokeslam. He’s about to keep the attack going when a bunch of wrestlers run down to try and help Randy. I didn’t even catch their names - The Giant kills them with chokeslams too. Alex Wright doesn’t do much better and Savage gets another big chokeslam. Lex Lugar comes down and it looks like he might actually attack Savage too but Giant jumps on him and gives him a massive chokeslam too. Taskmaster doesn’t seem to happy about that? There’s something going on with Lugar and the Dungeon of Doom, or at least it seems like it! 

• I spoke too soon; that wasn’t the main event! Lex Lugar is still laid out in the ring after a commercial break and his match against the Dungeon of Doom’s Meng is next. Meng gives him no time to recover and rushes the ring to start the match with a big advantage. The commentators question where The Taskmaster is as none of the DoD members go anywhere without him. He ends up not needing him and after a slow back and forth match, Meng uses his special golden spike weapon to hit Lugar in the throat and get the victory! Bischoff spent most of this match talking about how Hulk Hogan will be back on Nitro next week and that’s how the show ends - with a Meng victory and a hard-sell for next week’s show! 

WCW Monday Nitro - October 2nd 1995

• As the commentators welcome us to the show and hype up tonight’s double main event, one half of one of them appears and pulls Bischoff’s headset off to threaten Arn Anderson and promise that he’s going to get a beating tonight. That leads into hype for the OTHER main event - Lex Lugar vs. Macho Man with both Lugar’s WCW career and his WCW title shot on the line. That match kicks us off tonight and Lugar putting his career on the line really makes this one pretty obvious. The fans LOVE Randy Savage which makes me happy - I love him too. This is one of the better Lugar matches I’ve seen. He was really revitalised after his WWF career and came into WCW with something to prove so you pair that with Randy Savage who is and was one of the all time greats and this is pretty good. It’s heated and there’s some nice spots with a neckbreaker on the concrete from Lex and a big diving axe handle from the top rope all the way to the floor by Macho. The referee gets knocked down and Savage hits the big elbow but there’s no referee to count. As he tries to revive him, The Giant comes down to the ring and drills Randy with a massive chokeslam. He leaves and Lex Lugar picks the bones and gets the win with his Torture Rack submission. More fuel to the fire here; is Lex in cahoots with the Dungeon of Doom? Was Randy right not to trust him?

• As they promote the matches for WCW Saturday Night there is an interesting bit of story development - Johnny B Badd didn’t show up for his scheduled United States Championship match against Sting and no one is sure why. Where was Johnny? 
• The next match is slated to be Eddy Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko but instead Disco Inferno’s theme song plays and he comes out to dance. It’s all very 70s with shots faded together and he’s eventually interrupted by Eddy Guerrero who has quite cool Western/Mexican music as his theme song. He chases Disco out of the way so that he can get on with his match. Eddy here is a bland smiling babyface who waves and pumps his arms. Malenko is a serious, very gifted technician and mat wrestler and he has dramatic, almost action movie music as his theme song. These two guys were signed from ECW and had a lot of good matches against each other there so this was a pair of smart signings by Bischoff. Eddy had an awesome match with Jushin Thunder Liger on WCW Saturday Night which he won with a brainbuster and a frog splash which Tony Schiavone called a jackknife? I was really enjoying this match but Bischoff interrupts it to show us Hulk Hogan arriving in his limo. He tells Jimmy Hart that he is going to find The Giant tonight and put an end to him as Jimmy pleads with him to leave after what happened to Macho Man earlier. Back to the match, it's a very good back and forth match which I could have watched for another few minutes but Eddy gets the win out of nowhere with a roll up! Post match, Dean asks for a rematch and Eddy tells him any time and they shake hands. Good stuff.

• In the ring, Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan who is all fired up and wants to slay the Giant. He goes around the ring clapping hands with fans until “a woman…with a cane” as Gene calls her throws powder into Hogan’s face and assaults him with a cane. It’s The Taskmaster in disguise. He beats up Hogan as The Giant and The Zodiac come to the ring. Giant tries to break Hulk’s neck again and then, in the ultimate insult, Taskmaster shaved off his moustache! The American Males and The Nasty Boys - who were scheduled to wrestle each other tonight - come down to help and are all laid out with chokeslams by The Giant who has left all of these men laying. The commentators run down what happened and while Macho Man was on a stretcher of his own and Sting isn’t here tonight…where was Lex Lugar? Why didn’t he try to help?

• In the main event, Ric Flair faces Arn Anderson. Just like at Fall Brawl, Arn works on Flair’s arm and shoulder and grinds him down. It’s a lot shorter than their PPV match and Flair locks Arn in the Figure Four and has the match won. Brian Pillman runs down and climbs onto the top rope and it's unclear if the bell rings because Arn submitted or if because Pillman was about to dive onto them and cause a disqualification. Either way, Arn and Pillman beat down Ric Flair two on one and Bischoff ends the show with a big announcement - Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson next week but this time inside a steel cage! 

WCW Monday Nitro - October 9th 1995

• Just like last week the commentators are interrupted at the top of the show. This time it's WCW United States Champion Sting who promises that tonight he is going to settle the issues between Macho Man Randy Savage and The Total Package Lex Lugar. That leads directly into him defending the gold against Dungeon of Doom member The Shark. It lasts a few minutes before Sting avoids a corner charge, follows up with a Stinger Splash in the corner and then a crossbody off the top to retain his title. Sting is awesome, but that’s not news. 

• Sabu faces Mr. JL. There’s a loud Sabu chant at the start of the match so there must be a solid ECW contingent in Chicago. Mr. JL is also a future ECW star in Jerry Lynn! Sabu flies around the ring and hits a series of springboard leg drops on his way to victory. My theory about there being a loud bunch of ECW fans or “smart marks” in the crowd is proven correct as there’s a “Hogan sucks” chant out of nowhere as well. 

• In the ring, Mean Gene interviews Sting and Lex Lugar. Sting wastes no time and calls out the Macho Man to try and setting things between these men, just like he promised at the top of the show. I dunno why it amuses me that Lex isn’t in his ring gear for this. Sting says that The Giant is winning; he’s chokeslammed everyone. Randy Savage gets hot and says that The Giant hasn’t chokeslammed Sting and continues to accuse both of them of having sold out and joined the Dungeon of Doom. Sting says that they ALL want to be World Champion - there’s nothing suspicious about that. He suggests that at Halloween Havoc, Savage faces Kamala and Lugar faces Meng and IF they both win then they wrestle each other later in the night. Lex gets upset and says that he’s owed a World title shot so Sting gets angry at him too and calls him a whining baby and that he’s sick of sticking up for him. Lex and Macho agree to the terms laid out and that gives us two - potentially three - matches for Halloween Havoc. 

• In a pre-taped video, a limo pulls up outside the arena and Eric Bischoff sings the praises of another new signing who has made a huge name for himself in Mexico, Japan and Europe; it’s Chris Benoit, complete with big fluffy mullet.

• The next match is scheduled to be Big Bubba Rogers (aka The Big Boss Man in the WWF) vs. Road Warrior Hawk. This is Hawk’s return to the ring after Kurosawa broke his arm. Before the match, Disco Inferno came out and danced on the ramp. It seemed like both Rogers and Hawk might beat him up but they left him alone and he quietly danced to the back. The match itself is a big beefy big man match. Hawk hits a big powerslam but then gets distracted when Disco comes down to the ring and dances on the apron! Hawk attacks him and beats the living hell out of him but that causes him to get counted out. Big Bubba wins, thanks to Disco Inferno.

• Mean Gene is having a busy night and interviews WCW World Champion Hulk Hogan who comes out (to boos) dressed in all black. He compares shaving his moustache off to “burning the American flag” and promises that he will end The Giant at Halloween Havoc “machine to machine” in the monster truck sumo match. It’s hard to talk about that without it being very silly. Outside the arena, the Dungeon of Doom shows up in a monster truck so Hogan rushes off, neckbrace and all, to confront them outside the arena. The fans chant “Hogan sucks” at the end of the segment and Mean Gene keeps talking to try and drown them out. 

• The commercial for Halloween Havoc is very silly and 90s and I love it very much

• Before the main event, some police officers come out to whisper in Eric Bischoff’s ear and explain that they’re currently keeping Hogan and The Giant apart. Bobby Heenan kept trying to talk about the monster trucks and how impressive they are but Bischoff continually cuts him off. Eric has a weird energy on commentary as he is VERY deadpan. He never laughs or seems like he’s enjoying himself. 
• In the main event, Nature Boy Ric Flair battles Arn Anderson (who didn’t get an entrance) inside a steel cage. At Fall Brawl it seemed like Arn was the good guy and Flair was the heel but since Brian Pillman’s involvement it’s flipped and Flair is now the babyface vs. the other former Horseman. It’s a physical brawl with lots of punches and throwing each other into the cage as the fans in Chicago chant “we want blood” which I don’t think I’ve ever heard in wrestling before! The finish came out of no where as Flair works the leg and sets up the Figure Four, Arn clicks him in the head with a straight right hand. That knocks him out and gets the three count? Bischoff and Mongo are quick to jump all over that, claiming that Arn had a weapon. Pillman was outside the cage and slipped a pair of brass knuckles to him. On the replay, it was clear that he did have a weapon on his fist. Flair is furious and goes to the commentary desk and says that next week - partner or no partner - he will fight BOTH Arn and Pillman. The show ends with the commentary trio hyping up what we saw tonight as well as what will happen at Halloween Havoc. I can only assume that this extra few minutes was related to WWF Monday Night Raw on the other channel and trying to make sure that they overran to affect their ratings. There was a lot of sneaky stuff like that during the Monday Night Wars. It was around this time that Raw stopped airing at 9pm and started at 9:03pm.

WCW Monday Nitro - October 16th 1995

• The show kicks off with big news; United States Champion Sting has stepped up and offered to be Ric Flair’s partner against Arn and Pillman. These two have been feuding for literally years and Sting does warn Flair that if he swerves him then he will “leave him for dead”. Why would Sting trust Flair? I guess we’ll find out if that trust is misplaced tonight! 

• DDP defends his Television Championship against Johnny B Badd. Remember a couple of weeks ago when Johnny was supposed to get a shot at the US title on WCW Saturday Night but didn’t turn up? Turns out that it was DDP who slashed his tires and caused it. I’m not sure WHY Page would want to make Badd miss a title shot aside from him just being a heel. These two will ALSO face each other for the gold at Halloween Havoc so this match is to determine who will enter the PPV as the champion I guess? Odd. Page clocks Johnny with a stiff shot, apparently knocking him out cold before the match even started. Page theatrically pins Badd and counts his own three count. Officially he loses the match via disqualification. I wish Bischoff hadn’t told us these two would meet at the PPV BEFORE this match as him announcing a rematch after this would have made more sense. 

• Chris Benoit makes his WCW in ring debut against a man who he already knew very well in Eddy Guerrero. These two’s careers were ultimately defined by their relationship with each other so this is a fitting first match. It’s physical with them fighting in and out of the ring. Eddy hits nice dives and armdrags and head scissors while Benoit focuses on his arm and shoulder with aggressive submission offence. Basically, what both men are best known for (in the ring) so this is very much a “greatest hits”. Eddy hits a brainbuster but Benoit gets his knees up to block the frog splash and then follows up with a HARD powerbomb which I was sure would be the finish but Guerrero kicks out. Eddy throws a punch but it's from the arm that Benoit has been working on and so he hurts himself. Benoit follows up with a Dragon Suplex with a bridge to get the three count. At the end of this match Bischoff makes the first mention of a potential WCW Cruiserweight Championship being established. It’ll be a while before we actually see it but that does, obviously, happen soon.

• In the ring, Mean Gene promotes his WCW Hotlink (a premium phoneline fans could call for insider gossip, he made about $250,000 per year from it!) by telling us that someone at the WWF has been fired and that a WWF Performer had a fight with a fan in the parking lot…AND LOST! Call him now to get the details. Absolutely shameless. He interviews The Giant and The Taskmaster. He says that Hogan created him and he is destined to destroy Hulkamania. He took Hogan’s moustache and he has taken his red and yellow as now Hogan is dressed in all black. Darkness is consuming him and The Giant will extinguish the last little bit of good inside him at Halloween Havoc. It’s all very silly BUT…I like it. Wrestling is at its best when it's a bit silly.

• The Dungeon of Doom’s Meng takes on Hacksaw Jim Duggan who even in 1995 is STILL getting big cheers by waving around a US flag. Once again, Disco Inferno comes out and dances while Bischoff groans about how awful he is and demands he be taken off TV. What an odd gimmick. Meng puts down Duggan with a superkick and picks up the submission win with his Tongan Spike finishing hold. 

• Hulk Hogan promotes Halloween Havoc but makes two important points; he is all black and has dropped the red and yellow because the Dungeon of Doom has snuffed all of the light out of his life. “Darkness resides in his own home”. He also calls Jimmy Hart his best friend and most trusted confidant - that’ll be important down the line. Hogan says that he scared everyone last week and accuses Giant of wanting to burn all the trees and scorch the Earth. Jimmy Hart says he’s scared of what Hogan has in store for them at the PPV - he’s never seen Hulk like this! 

• In the main event, Sting isn’t here! No one has seen him all day so it seems like he might have had second thoughts about helping out Flair. The Nature Boy shows no fear and takes on Arn and Pillman in a handicap match anyway. The commentators discuss whether this WAS a setup, why would Flair be in there battling Arn and Pillman anyway? That’s the main point here - is Sting right to not trust Flair? He battles Arn and Pillman easily at first, controlling the match but it is still two on one so that doesn’t last forever. The fans chant “we want Sting” until finally the Stinger does run down and make the save. He’s obviously now happy to trust that Flair isn’t setting him up. He got the hot tag and the crowd went NUTS for him beating Pillman and Arn all around the ring. It’s too much for them and they take a walk, losing the match via count out. Flair and Sting celebrated together and I think Heenan jumped the gun, telling us to “wait for Halloween Havoc”. Nothing has been announced for the PPV yet but then after a commercial break, Mean Gene Okerlund is in the ring with them and confirms that the match is set for Halloween Havoc - Sting and Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman. Sting says that he was keeping his distance and didn’t trust Flair BUT after seeing him show guts and heart he came out to save the day. He says that he can see that The Nature Boy is now “walking the straight and narrow” and Flair high fives him and tells him that he’s the greatest. Bobby Heenan can’t believe this and is disgusted by Flair, apparently turning babyface like this after all these years. He says that a “slap on the back is only 12 inches for a kick in the butt” which is a good line.

WCW Monday Nitro - October 23rd 1995

• No messing around this week and we go right to the ring. Macho Man Randy Savage takes on Kurosawa who focuses his attack on Macho’s arm. It’s taped up already and he was working through an arm injury for real. Kurosawa dominates until a misplaced kick on the outside where he hits the ring post and sells his ankle. Randy gets it back in the ring and quickly finishes him off with a gorgeous top rope elbow drop to get the win. This was a decent match. 
• The commentators spend no time talking about that and shift instead to the big news that Hulk Hogan is here tonight, as is The Giant. That is interrupted by The Master, the true leader of the Dungeon of Doom who screams his promo; a 13 tonne block of ice has been found on the North face of the Himalayas and it contains “their insurance policy”. The fall of Hulkamania will be complete at Halloween Havoc! More on that later of course but for now, Mean Gene interviews The Taskmaster and The Giant in front of the giant block of ice. The Taskmaster calls The Master “father” and says that this block of ice contains “The Yeti”. Taskmaster repeats all his points from previous weeks; the darkside has a hold of Hogan and no goodness remains in his soul. Giant compares Hogan to the White Bengal Tiger and that he’s running out of lives. He is the One True Immortal and will take Hogan’s WCW title before laughing like a maniac. This was ridiculous but in the best way (in my opinion anyway)

• The first half of this show is entirely about Hogan and Giant and from there we go to a Hogan interview with Mean Gene on the ramp. He says that while he walks through the valley of the shadow of Death, he fears no man because he has all the Hulkamaniacs on his back supporting him. He says that no one knows what a man in all black is capable of and then, turns to his “so called friends” Sting, Macho and Lex - they’re all wearing red and yellow, growing moustaches and trying to steal his spot. He says that they are hovering and waiting to steal his title but he's ready. Hulk “The Bad Guy” Hogan will beat Sting, Savage and Lugar because he’ll be World Champion “forever and a day”. Interesting promo I have to say - they were definitely flirting with a heel turn for The Hulkster, or at least the idea of him not being a clean cut super good guy like he always had been up to this point. Hogan did also name drop The Yeti (pronounced Yeh-tay) during this too. I’m excited for THAT debut. For the rest of the show, Bischoff talked about little else saying that this new attitude from Hogan scares him and that his mind isn’t right - we’ve NEVER seen this side of The Hulkster.

• Next up, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko face the team of Eddy Guerrero and Germany’s Alex Wright. This match gives the commentators a chance to talk about the international flair and the growing “cruiserweight division” in WCW. Alex comes out on crutches to everyone’s surprise and has Mr. JL replace him for this match. I wasn’t able to find out if Alex’s injury is legitimate or not. The bulk of this match sees Benoit and Malenko work over JL in the ring, hammering on him with slams and suplexes, tagging in and out quickly and keeping him isolated in their corner. Expert tag team work. JL finally manages to counter a suplex and make the hot tag to Eddy which gets a bigger pop than I’d have expected. The future Latino Heat comes in on fire and sends Malenko and Benoit scurrying with dropkicks and armdrags as the commentators call him a human highlight reel and do a good job of putting over his skills. This is a great match and with Eddy and Benoit fighting on the outside, JL counters Malenko into a roll up and steals the win! Their celebration is short lived as Brian Pillman jumps them on the entrance way and drops Eddy with a DDT onto the concrete! What on Earth inspired that?

• In the main event, Harlem Heat (with the lovely Sister Sherri) takes on Lex Lugar and US Champion Sting. During the entrances, Bischoff and Mongo mock the most recent WWF PPV offering. “In your house? It should be in the out-house!”. Interestingly to me, Bobby Heenan never joins in with the anti-WWF stuff. Bischoff calls him a sick twisted individual for calling Sherri beautiful. I’m with Bobby here - I like her too. Sting comes out without his United States title belt which I don’t like. I can only assume because the fact that he’s champion has nothing to do with his current storylines (trying to convince everyone that Lugar is a good guy, and helping out Flair).

• Booker and Stevie are the better, more established team and dominate this match but Sting and Lex were best friends in real life and that definitely translates to their on screen characters. You feel that they’re mates. At ringside, Sherri admires a pair of polaroid pictures of herself with Col. Robert Parker and kisses them so THAT storyline romance hasn’t gone anywhere either. Booker and Stevie work over Lex for a long time until missing a dive off the top and Lugar is able to tag in Sting. He bails into the ring and streamrolls both members of Harlem Heat, finishing off Booker T with a crossbody off the top rope. Their victory celebration is short lived as The Giant and The Taskmaster come down and flatten both Lex and Sting with massive chokeslams. Macho Man and Hulk Hogan run down next and Savage holds Hogan back, not wanting him to risk reinjuring his neck. Hogan waves Savage off so this can be a one on one fight. Giant completely no sells Hulk’s punches and clobbers him down to the mat. The fans boo when Hogan Hulks back up and fights Giant off. The ring fills with people as the Dungeon of Doom runs down to get involved and with the show in chaos, the giant block of ice explodes to reveal…a mummy? It’s The Yeh-tay!