WCW Monday Nitro
May 6, 1996
Daytona Beach, FL
Ocean Center

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: The Giant (4/29/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Konnan (1/29/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Sting & Lex Luger (1/22/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lex Luger (3/6/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (5/2/1996) (yet to air)

Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and that Emmy-award winning Steve “Mongo” McMichael.

• Randy Savage vs. Hugh Morrus
  

For Savage being treated like he’s insane, he sure hasn’t really done anything all that insane. Morrus attacks Savage before he even gets into the ring. Morrus puts on Savage’s jacket, hat, and glasses and mocks him, which fires up Savage as he beats all his stuff off Morrus. He grabs his jacket and wraps it around Hugh’s throat and hangs him over the top rope until the ref calls for the DQ because Savage is SO CRAZY AND OUT OF HAND. (3:08) Once Savage lets Morrus go, he brings him into the ring for a MACHO ELBOW against the ref’s plea. When the ref gets in Randy’s face for his disobedience, he pimp slaps the ref. Randy Anderson runs in to stop the mayhem, but Savage has SNAPPED and gives the original ref the MACHO ELBOW! Face pop for Savage! Here comes Doug Dellinger and some policemen to escort him the crap out of here. This might be the first time Savage has done anything borderline bad. ½*

Bischoff announces the passing of one of the greatest influences to the modern era of wrestling Ray Stevens. They put up a graphic to where you can donate money instead of sending flowers to Ray’s favorite charity: the Cauliflower Alley club.

• Dean Malenko vs. Jushin Liger (w/Sonny Oono)
  

Bischoff makes mention that Shinjiro Ohtani is the NEW WCW world cruiserweight champ and will be facing Dean Malenko in a few weeks. That title change actually airs on the May 18 episode of Worldwide and I’ll do a review of it in the Slamboree review. They do a nice wristlock exchange to start. Liger avoids a monkey flip and levels Malenko with an enziguri to take him out to the floor. Meanwhile, a decked out Ric Flair and his ladies head out and over to their VIP table paid for with Randy Savage’s money. Ha! Over in the ring while everybody pays attention to Flair, Liger hits Malenko with a somersault senton and a BRAINBUSTER for 1-2-NO! Liger begins to stretch out Malenko as we go to break. Geez, Flair AND a commercial break! When we return, we take another thirty-second look at what Flair’s doing. Back in the ring, Malenko slaps a leglock on Liger. He comes back with a handspring back elbow and a Koppou Kick in the corner. Malenko blocks a superplex, but takes a dropkick out to the floor as Liger dives out on top of him. Back inside, Malenko catches a handspring into a rollup sequence. Deano stops Liger up top and gives him a Flying Gutbuster! Don’t remember seeing him do that to anybody else on Nitro yet. Liger counters a powerbomb into a pinning situation for two. Liger flips out of a suplex, but gets nailed with a Tiger Driver for the 1-2-3. (6:51 shown) Oh yes, the Cruiserweight division is coming. This one had a little psychology problems concerning the leg work, but I think they just wanted to cram as much cool Liger stuff as they could here. **½

Over to Gene Okerlund with Ric Flair and the ladies. Robin Leach couldn’t get invited to a Ric Flair party, brother. At Slamboree when he teams up with Randy Savage to take on Arn Anderson and Eddie Guerrero in their Lethal Lottery match, he’s going to eliminate Savage again and tells AA that he better not make the wrong decision again to cross Ric Flair. No mention of Eddie. Flair gives Mongo’s wife Debra in the front row a glass of champagne. She takes it and dumps the champagne on the floor. Good thing Shockmaster doesn’t work here anymore, he might slip and fall! Before it’s all over, that Texas woman will know why they call Naitch an all-around cowboy. WOOO! Liz says don’t worry about the spilled champagne because Randy has plenty of money. BA-ZING!

“Blood Runs Cold” promo airs. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Glacier is coming!

• Sting vs. Lord Steven Regal (w/Jeeves)
  

Heenan stirs the pot a little bit over Debra to get Mongo ticked. Hilarious. Regal’s all taped up after his parking lot brawl with Finlay last week. Sting is ALL about the Busch race car series as he’s got Steve Grissom’s car number #29 on his tights. Sting tries for the SCORPION DEATHLOCK early, but Regal squirms over to the ropes. Bischoff mentions that the Belfast Bruiser is out of Slamboree now as he was supposed to be Regal’s partner. Oh yeah, and we go to break. We come back to see Regal begging off. They trade some comical wristlocks. Regal makes the ropes and does the ‘push up on my bicep’ pose for the crowd. Sting lets us know he thinks British people are homosexuals and gets FIRED UP over the thought. They trade bow-tie locks, but Sting powers out. Regal goes to the eyes and destroys Sting in the corner with forearms. Sting comes back with a dropkick and a pair of Japanese armdrags! Stinger Splash misses, but Sting backdrops out of a butterfly suplex into a painful looking bridge for 1-2-3! (6:22) I meant painful for Regal. Ouch. Good little match. **¾

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Lex Luger
  

Luger no-showed a world title shot on the previous Saturday Night where Marcus Bagwell replaced him and Luger does the same here. Jim Duggan comes out as his replacement? Can this type of bait and switch booking possibly suck anymore?

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Jim Duggan
  

Giant doesn’t have a problem beating up his buffoon. He squashes Duggan like a bug for three minutes until he misses an buttalanche and Duggan goes for his tape. Doesn’t matter. CHOKESLAM! (3:16) Another CHOKESLAM for Duggan. Who does he think he is – coming out here like he can beat up the Giant. Cobra, Cuban Assassin (heel?), Alex Wright – they all receive CHOKESLAMS. Ric Flair comes from behind with a wooden chair and bashes it on Giant’s head, but he NO-SELLS! Here comes Sting for the save? ¼*

As Giant GOOZLES Flair, Sting flies down on the Giant with a chop block. He unloads on Giant, nails Jimmy Hart, and takes Giant off his feet with a flying double sledge. SCORPION DEATHLOCK? YES! Sting turns it over on him! The crowd is going nuts for this. Jimmy whacks Sting with the megaphone. No effect. Here comes Luger with a briefcase. Is he going to swerve Sting and wipe him out or will he stay true to his buddy and nail the Giant? Neither. Gene Okerlund comes into the ring to try and make sense of all this. Sting asks Luger where he’s been? Nothing is settled and we have no idea what kept Luger from not showing up. WE’RE OUTTA TIME!

Keep in mind with the ratings, that Nitro aired at 7pm instead of its usual 9pm time where it goes directly against Raw because of TNT airing the NBA Playoffs. A victory nonetheless in the Monday Night Wars for the WWF.