Dave Reviews: WCW Monday Nitro – March 11th, 1996

Through a project a friend worked on, I was reminded of a fantastic Road Warriors/Steiners match on WCW Monday Nitro. Since WWE uploaded that entire episode on the WCW YouTube channel, I decided to give the whole show a look and it was a HOOT.

This Nitro gave us the following matches, and they all worked to a different degree I felt:

• The Giant with Jimmy Hart v “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
• The Steiner Brothers v The Road Warriors
• WCW TV Champion Lex Luger v Alex Wright
• Main Event Lumberjack Strap Match: Hulk Hogan/”Macho Man” Randy Savage/The Booty Man v “Nature Boy” Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Kevin Sullivan

Let’s get into this…

*****

The Giant taking on “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan was honestly pretty incredible for what it was. It could 100% be the nostalgia talking, but that kind of match designed to juice the crowd up between those two massive fellas worked for me.

Ol’ Hacksaw has to resort to some shenanigans to try to take The Giant down via a sort of “taped fist” situation, but Jimmy Hart distracts Hacksaw and eats a headbutt for his troubles. Pretty quickly we have a chokeslam and it is OVER.

It was a legitimately hot way to open this show, and they also had “Loose Cannon” Brian Pillman make an appearance and get run off by commentator Eric Bischoff.

*****

The real main event is this Steiner Brothers and Road Warriors match. It’s just about everything you could ask for with the individuals involved. We know that the Roadies aura slipped a bit at some point in the 90s, but they are still on the right side of the decline here.

Even little things like how cool they look emerging from the smoke at the beginning of the match demonstrate this. This turned out to be every bit the hoss fight you’d imagine between these four guys.

One thing all involved did really well was sell the idea that these guys either legitimately didn’t like each other or were at the very least involved in heated competitive rivalry. This leads to Animal drilling Rick with one of the gauntlets the Roadies wear as part of their entrance attire, and a fiery post-match interview with Scott detailing the rivalry between the two teams. It really is simple, but tremendous stuff and most importantly it feels authentic in a way that’s often missing in modern professional wrestling.

*****

WCW TV Champion Lex Luger defends his title against “Das Wunderkind” Alex Wright. The stock music WCW found for Luger goes far harder than it probably should, and Luger brings his WCW World Tag Team Title to the ring with him as well. “Two for the price of one…” he bellows off camera. His partner at that point was none other than “The Man Called” Sting.

Luger is a guy who probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his in-ring work, but I feel that narrative has started to shift over the years.

Wrestling legend “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart runs down to save Luger which furthers the “Where does he stand?” storyline between Luger and his friend/partner Sting. Luger protests Jimmy’s interference, but then poses as they go to commercial.

One of the highlights of this match was Luger’s sell on the missile dropkick from Wright.

*****

It’s time for the show’s actual main event (despite my previous declaration) as Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and The Booty Man take on “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, “Double A” Arn Anderson, and “The Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan (accompanied by Miss Elizabeth & Woman) in a Lumberjack Strap Six-Man Tag match.

The first thing that really caught my eye here is that even the Road Warriors showed up for lumberjack duty. Road Warrior Animal pretty quickly gets a moment in the spotlight when he carries Flair back to the ring after an escape attempt up the entrance ramp.

This is quality frantic six-man tag action, and the lumberjacks actually do add something to the proceedings. They are wailing on anyone who gets out of the ring, but also each other. It’s chaotic in all the right ways. It’s so chaotic that the Big Boot/Leg Drop for the win by Hogan on Flair is almost an afterthought.

In all the chaos they’re also working towards Kimberly becoming The Booty Babe as she wandered out there to admire The Booty Man (aka Brutus Beefcake).

This is 100% the kind of match that I think should close out a weekly wrestling show as there’s plenty happening that feels important and exciting, and gives the show a hot ending.

*****

“Mean” Gene Okerlund hits the ring to interview the losing team (Flair/Arn & Sullivan) about the upcoming Doomsday Cage Match at WCW Uncensored (1996).

Sullivan is hollering, and then Arn cuts a quintessential Arn promo which rocks because he explicitly puts over the upcoming match. Flair follows that up with exactly the kind of unhinged Flair promo one would expect.

All of it lands pretty well as they hurtle towards the aforementioned Doomsday Cage Match between The Mega Powers (Hogan & Savage) versus The Alliance to End Hulkamania (Flair, Arn, Meng, Barbarian, Luger, Sullivan, Z-Gangsta (aka Zeus aka actor Tommy “Tiny” Lister), and The Ultimate Solution (aka actor Jeep Swenson) with Miss Elizabeth, Woman, and Jimmy Hart at ringside.

*****

One thing I really like here is that the show actually closes with them going back to the commentary desk where Eric Bischoff, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan break down what happened and what is to come at WCW Uncensored.

A deranged Flair interrupts as they fade to black, but I think this style of closing the show works really well.

*****

This was a really fun episode of pre-nWo WCW Monday Nitro, and I highly recommend giving it a look. I watched it for the tag battle between two of my favorite teams of all-time, but was really impressed with the Duggan/Giant match as well as the main event spectacle.

In general, I felt the show had a real authentic feel to it that didn’t come off as polished as modern wrestling can, and that adds a sense of realism to the proceedings.