Nitro is live and still hot off the fallout of Halloween Havoc. Tonight's card will feature Lex Luger taking on Meng of the Dungeon of Doom plus the leader of the Dungeon of Doom, the Taskmaster goes up against Randy Savage as the continuing issues between Savage and Luger intensify. Oh, and we'll be hearing from Hulk Hogan or something... (coughs). But opening action tonight is Alex Wright taking on Disco Inferno, AKA the best bad theme ever (Though with Orndorff and American Males that is a hard contest).
Sneak attack by Disco early on, laying in some elbows to Wright. He throws Wright outside and continues to strut his stuff, which gives Wright enough time to land a dropkick over the ropes. Whip to the corner and a spin kick by Wright who covers for two. Disco gets thrown out of the ring and hits a beautiful dive over the ropes.
Wright cartwheels over Disco, but gets caught by a belly to belly into the ropes. Disco lays in some strikes and follows with a clothesline. After checking his hair, he continues to dance. Disco goes up to the buckle, but Wright lands a dropkick to send him tumbling. Wright blocks a right (ha) and continues with some strikes and a back elbow, covering for two. Disco lands an elbow to the back of Wright's head and checks his hair. Back suplex from Disco who tries for the last dance, but gets caught in a backslide for three, giving Alex Wright the win.
Really hot opener. Disco is very basic in the ring, but I do like the cheesiness of the gimmick. Alex Wright once again looked amazing with some great high flying offense, making him one of my favorites already when reviewing the Nitro era.
We go backstage to Jimmy Hart and Hogan-Senpai who is still working out despite having the bad neck from Fall Brawl. Hogan's back on track and coming after the big nasty Giant. He's building a monster truck and wants to do battle with Giant's truck. And if the big man can get by that, he'll put the title on the line against the Giant. Basic Hogan rambling, but yes, we really are going forward with a storyline involving monster trucks.
Mean Gene is in the ring, recapping the heated situation between Randy Savage and Lex Luger on last week's Nitro. Back in the ring, Savage is ready to confront Luger again. Lex sprints it to the ring to respond. Luger says Savage never had any respect with him. Anyone who would dare slap the total package on live TV has no respect for their well being. He wants the match with Savage on next week's Nitro and Savage easily agrees. Luger adds the stipulation that if Luger will leave if he loses next week. So that spoils who wins that match.
Yes, that gif is a real thing that happened in wrestling. We get our ad for Halloween Havoc's Monster vs Monster match, which focuses less on actual wrestling, but the showdown between two monster trucks above the Joe Louis Arena. Wrestling is a weird, weird thing.
Up next, it's Kurosawa taking on Sgt. Craig "Pitbull" Pittman. Kurosawa, managed by Col. Robert Parker made his impact in WCW by breaking the arm of Road Warrior Hawk. Pitman starts with some headbutts to the midsection of Kurosawa to start, and works some arm bars taking him down. Kurosawa comes back with some hard kicks to the midsection that sends Pitman out of the ring. He follows with a baseball slide. Kurosawa removes the padding on the floor and hits a back drop, sending Pitman crashing back first to the concrete.
Kurosawa takes Pitman back to the ring and continues to apply damage to the arm. Pitman sends Kurosawa over the top rope and headbutts him off the apron. Pitman rams the shoulder hard into the ring apron and follows with an arm drag over the top rope back into the ring. Belly to belly by Pitman and another headbutt into the code red, but Kurosawa gets to the ropes. Some more elbows to the shoulder by Pitmanm who escapes a shoulder lock attempt. Kurosawa hits a german suplex for a messy looking three.
Not a bad match honestly. No technical masterpiece, but I did like that it was a brutal brawl with lots of focus on hurting the arms of the opponent. After the super fast match at Fall Brawl, I was expecting something terrible from Pitman, but was kinda surprised at how decent he was, and Kurosawa continues to look like a legit threat, especially since we're still coming off the breaking of Hawk's arm.
Mean Gene is back in the ring with Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman. Pillman says that ever since Double A beat Ric Flair at Fall Brawl, the Nature Boy has reached an all time low. While Flair is looking in vain for a partner, Anderson and Pillman are a cohesive unit. Arn says that the better man won at Fall Brawl, and if Flair wants to get in a tag team situation, this is where Arn excels. They're confident that Flair will be unable to find a partner. Basic promos, nothing super amazing.
Up next, it's Randy Savage taking on The Taskmaster. We recap the attack on the Baywatch set which is the reasoning for this match tonight. Savage gives chase to Sullivan early on, but The Zodiac attacks Savage, ramming him into the buckle. Sullivan lays in some blows and tosses Savage to the outisde. He puts Savage on the barricade and lands a clothesline. Savage tries to get in, only to eat a boot to the face. Sullivan continues the strikes on the apron. Savage attempts a comeback, but Sullivan is quick to throw Savage right back out of the ring. Back body drop by Savage on the outside. He brings Sullivan back in and hits an ax handle off the top. He brings Zodiac in nad lays in an elbow, then shoves the referee, causing a disqualification. Savage stacks both Zodiac and Taskmaster and goes for the elbow, but Sullivan avoids it.
The Giant makes his way to the ring as Savage works on Sullivan. Giant lands a massive chokeslam and goes for the neck snap, but the lower card goobers come in, only to be laid out with chokeslams. Lex Luger eventually comes in after Savage was laid out and stands above the Macho Mna. Giant goes for the attack, and chokeslams the total package. Sullivan isn't happy as the two leave, sending us to break.
Well, there's no rest for the Total Package as we go right into our main event. It's Lex Luger taking on Dungeon of Doom member Meng. Meng rushes right into the ring and attacks the prone Luger. He rams Luger into the buckle and the selling yelling from Luger is amazing. How did he not do most of this in the WWF? As Meng chokes Luger, Bischoff tells us that Hogan will be on Nitro next week. Oh... goody.
Meng continues to stomp down Luger and chokes him in the corner. Piledriver to Luger by Meng who covers for two. He continues to choke Luger who bounces around like a loon, while yelling loudly with each sell. Snap suplex and cover by Meng only gets a two. He continues to apply pressure to the neck as "USA" chants blare. He's not that gimmick anymore guys, there are no flags on those trunks. After the arm drop spot, Luger recovers and breaks out of the nerve hold. Meng comes back with a gutwrench backbreaker, and attempts several covers for two. Great botch by Bischoff "Luger trying to cover the Total Package Lex Luger". Now that sounds like quite the feat.
Meng locks in a facelock to Luger before focusing on some stomps and a leg drop, covering for two. He applies the long chinlock to Luger, who eventually escapes, only to eat a shot to the throat and a Samoan drop. Meng goes to the second rope, but gets caught in a facebuster from Luger. Luger gets some boots to Meng and shoves him out of the corner. Clothesline by Luger, but he falls back, still somewhat selling the beat down from earlier. Meng hits Luger with the spike to get the three in what was a good brawl, with Luger doing some better selling than he was in the WWE. Not a strong main event, but it does work to continue the continual fracas involving Luger, Savage and the Dungeon of Doom.
Another solid edition of Nitro that does a great job building towards Halloween Havoc, but ultimately it felt more like an hour long advertisement for next week's episode with the build towards Luger vs Savage. That aside, we got some minor continuation towards Flair vs Anderson and Pillman, a good match with Alex Wright and Disco Inferno, A better than expected match with Pitman and Kurosawa, The Giant looking like a threat, and the continuing question of what the motives of Lex Luger truly are. What Nitro has done better than Raw so far is keeping storyline focus strong and using their hour of TV to their advantage. And that advantage helps earn this Nitro a B+ rating.
WHO WON THE WEEK #3: RAW
Now, even after saying all that, I still think I enjoyed Raw much more this week. The return of Marty was a good surprise, we got a title change with the tag titles, and it also felt like Raw used their hour to not only come off In Your House 3 on the right foot, but push forward to In Your House 4 with a lot of momentum. Nitro was a great show, but I do feel like Raw was the much easier sit.