WCW Monday Nitro
September 22, 1997
Salt Lake City, UT
E Center

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/9/1997)
WCW U.S. Champion: Curt Hennig (9/15/1997)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Alex Wright (8/21/1997)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Eddie Guerrero (9/14/1997)

Immediately starting the show, Kimberly calls out the Nitro Girls by name as they hurry down from the crowd to dance in front of the ramp. You can catch Wild Cat Willie on the side there.

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Mike Tenay.

The interim WCW Commissioner Roddy Piper will make a big announcement tonight. Eric Bischoff comes over to the announce table. Larry Z tells Tony Schiavone to stay put. Bischoff orders Larry Z not stick his nose in other people’s business. If he ever gets involved in a match again, he will pay a dear price. When Zbyszko replies to what Eric is saying, Bischoff begins to get angry. Who is he, Vince McMahon now? Tony Schiavone stands up to leave, and Larry tries to stop him. Now that Bischoff has said his peace, he heads to the back. Now this is awesome. Larry Z sends us over to some old footage from the Great American Bash 1996 where Scott Hall and Kevin Nash gave Bischoff a powerbomb off the stage through a table. Zbyszko reminds us what a gutless dweeb Bischoff is. He was scared, he didn’t have the guts to fight the now, and he was the first to run behind the curtails of Hall and Nash. Larry continues to ask Bischoff if he really thinks that once he has no power left in WCW, that the nWo won’t toss him aside? Just a great promo from Larry here. He then chastises Tony Schiavone for his behavior last week and tells him to “be a man”. When the space shuttle blew up in 1986, Dan Rather stood his ground and reported. When Kennedy was shot, Walter Cronkite with a tear in his eye broadcasted it to the world. Tony’s response: “Yeah, well Walter Cronkite never called a cage match either.” WHAT.

• Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Silver King
  

They are really trying to rebuild Rey with weekly TV matches and get him to connect with fans by giving out a mask to the kids ala Bret Hart with the shades. Mysterio headscissors Silver King in and out of the ring several times here. The reverse headscissors out of the corner was pretty SWANK, I might add. Eddie Guerrero saunters down to the ring to get a closer look. Rey puts Silver King away with – you guessed it – the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA for the three-count. (3:26) While Eddie argues with ref Mark Curtis over something, Rey flips over Curtis and somersault planchas onto Guerrero to leave him laying with the cruiserweight belt. **

• Hugh Morrus vs. Bill Goldberg
  

Neither Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, or even Mike Tenay know anything about Goldberg. After a hammerlock exchange, Goldberg takes Morrus down into a legbar. Morrus makes the ropes and catches himself off a corner whip and comes off the second-rope with a clothesline. NO LAUGHING MATTER! Cover, 1-2-NO! Goldberg NO-SELLS a back elbow, does a back flip, and catches Morrus with a powerslam. He slams Morrus a second time and delivers the first JACKHAMMER ever seen on TV! That gets him win #1.(2:45) And it begins. Gene Okerlund wants a word with him, but Goldberg walks away. *

Now the new World order has taken the Four Horsemen parody and added their own twist to their own segment.

NITRO GIRLS! Keep those Nitro Party video tapes coming in.

We revisit Larry Zbyszko (not even a ref) fast-counting Scott Hall at Fall Brawl.

• WCW World Television Champion Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno
  

Apparently, Salt Lake City really HATES Alex Wright. Disco gets slapped to start and then seems fired up for the rest of the match. He slaps him back and sends Wright retreating with a series of hiptosses. Raven is sitting in the front row, just so you know. Commercials! When we come back, Wright catches Disco with a spinning heel kick and stomps him down in the corner. He follows up with a flying stomp to Disco. Tony – “I’ve never seen that move used!” HE DOES IT EVERY WEEK. Disco punches back and whips Alex into the corner, but he shoots up to the top rope and gets crotched. Crowd loves it. Anyways, Disco hits a few moves to mount his weak comeback. They end up both trying a crossbody block. As they crash and burn, Disco finds himself on top for the three-count to win the TV title. (6:47 shown) Well, at least Disco isn’t Renegade. Jacqueline walks down to the ring with Gene Okerlund because she wants to talk to Disco Inferno. She tells him that everybody knows why he was gone for six months. Disco tells her to cool it. Jackie says she knows she can beat him. Disco blows her off since he just wants to party. Jackie plainly tells us this ain’t over. Gene calls this a “man’s world”, which is PRETTY awesome.

They replay the Four Horsemen parody segment nWo-style. AGAIN.

• Scott Hall (w/Syxx) vs. Hector Garza
  

Tony mentions that Chris Benoit is out with a concussion after Wargames. That’s always an eerie thing to hear now that we have so much hindsight. We get our first survey tonight. It seems like a mixed reaction. Hall then cuts a promo on Lex Luger and Larry Zbyszko. He calls Larry Z a “nothing happening, ex-old school ‘rassler”. Oh, boy. Being the man that he is, Zbyszko doesn’t budge. Hall shouts out that somebody should tell Terry Taylor (whoa!) that he doesn’t want to wait for Halloween Havoc, because he wants Lex Luger right now. Luger doesn’t show. He calls out Zbyszko and he stands up to Hall, but doesn’t get in the ring. Hall and Syxx give Larry a crotch chop and tells him to go sit down. Go to your “spot”, Larry.

So WCW sends out Hector Garza. Mmhmm. Zbyszko says he’s not dumb enough to take on Hall and Syxx at the same time. Hall hits a Super Fallaway Slam on Garza. Instead of capitalizing, Hall bullies ref Mark Curtis around. He was a ref who got taken out at Fall Brawl by Hall. Garza sneaks a rollup and Curtis fast-counts Hall because Hall will job to just about anybody. (1:34) Right afterwards, Hall leaves Garza laying with the OUTSIDER’S EDGE. Mark Curtis gets one too for counting as Hall dares Zbyszko to get him some. ¼*

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.

• La Parka, Psychosis, and Los Villanos (w/Sonny Oono) vs. Ultimo Dragon, Juventud Guerrera, Ciclope, and Lizmark Jr.
  

This will be fought under LUCHA RULES. Dragon and Psychosis do their thing for a little over a minute. Nothing too crazy. As soon as Psychosis gets dumped on the floor, the wheels fall off this match as the luchadores start flying. There’s a little bit of story going on though with Sonny Oono costing Dragon a top-rope Hurracanrana on Psychosis by yanking him down to the floor. Oono gets his kicks in and holds Dragon for Psychosis to come off the top rope, but Dragon moves and Oono gets wiped out. Not really though. In the ring, La Parka gets crotched up top, allowing Juventud to nail him with a springboard headscissors. One fancy lucha victory roll later and Guerrera gets the win. (4:45) What a mess. However, it was entertaining. Kind of like a Michael Bay movie, but shorter and with more Mexicans. *½

Gene Okerlund brings out the interim WCW Commissioner Roddy Piper. Gosh, I love his slow walk through the tunnel. That’s owning the stage, brother. He makes a match between Lex Luger and Scott Hall at Halloween Havoc – only this time, Larry Zbyszko will be the special referee. He says WCW wants to ban cage matches because they are too barbaric, but that’s exactly why Piper wants Hollywood Hogan in a cage. Piper hypes this as the one and only time he and Hogan will meet in a cage match. He then says he’s had more cage match than Brigham Young has had wives. Surprisingly, the Salt Lake City crowd pops. Piper promises to slam Hogan’s head in the door so many times, he’ll think he’s in Grand Central station. He will make Mike Tyson look like a vegetarian at Halloween Havoc. The new World order (NWA?) might be 4-LIFE, but Roddy Piper is forever.

Time for the 1-800-COLLECT Road Report with Lee Marshall. He’s in Worcester, Mass to hype the people for next week’s Nitro. Heenan – “If Paul Revere were alive today, he’d warn the people that Lee Marshall is coming to town.” HAHA.

• Rick & Scott Steiner (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. The Faces of Fear
  

Well, this should be a bombfest. Meng briefly NO-SELLS for Scott, but then takes a butterfly slam. Steinerline to Barbarian sends the FOF retreating. The Steiners do the dog bit. Tag to Rick, he powerslams Barb and hands him over to Scott. He drills Barbarian with a dragon suplex. Blind tag to Meng, he and Barb deliver the BACKDROP INTO A POWERBOMB on Scott. DEATH. Moving on, Scott blows through a double-clothesline and lays them both out. Hot tag to Rick, he goes Steinerline crazy. He side slams Barb and gives a belly to belly suplex to Meng. The Steiners go for the flying bulldog on Barbarian, but Meng shoves Rick down into Barbarian and Scott. With both of them out of it, Meng counters another belly to belly suplex from Rick with the TONGAN DEATH GRIP for the pinfall. (5:25) YES. Tony calls this the biggest win in the career of the Faces of Fear. Either way, fun power match. ***

Next up, Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff come down to the ring. Hogan is wearing Ric Flair’s red robe given to him by Curt Hennig last week. He’s cut the sleeves off for crying out loud. I believe Flair is still pissed about that because he never paid him for it. WHERE IS STING? Hogan thanks Hennig for his latest trophy – the Flair robe. He’s going to put it next to his Oscars. HAHAHAHA. He tells Roddy Piper to get a life. Bischoff wants Piper to stop telling people what to do and trying to run roughshod over the organization he built from out of the rubble into what it is today; only with Hogan’s help, of course. Hogan threatens Piper and says there’s no way he’s going to beat Hollywood. Riiiiiight.

• Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Stevie Richards
  

Savage threatens Dave Penzer to give him the microphone. He asks Liz what she thinks of DDP. She thinks Page is only walking in the Macho Man’s shadow. As his way of welcoming Curt Hennig into the nWo, Savage allows Liz to walk down the aisle with him in tonight’s main event. Raven watches on from the front row. Savage points at him, but Raven just sits there. Savage beats up Stevie right in front of Raven, which brings Raven to his feet. Liz gets in between them and gets Savage back in the ring. MACHO ELBOW! (3:15) Raven jumps the rail and meets Savage in the ring. It looks like he might step to Randy, but instead he walks over and drops Stevie with an EVENFLOW DDT. ½*

• Handicap Match: Booker T (w/Jacqueline) vs. Konnan & Scott Norton (w/Vincent)
  

To explain Konnan’s presence, Buff Bagwell will be wrestling in the Budokan Hall for New Japan the following evening. To explain Stevie Ray’s absence, Booker T gets on the mic. He tells us that Stevie Ray tore his Achilles a few weeks back. Anyways, this turns into a handicap match. Booker does just fine to start kicking everybody around. Norton lowers the top rope on him though causing Booker to fly out to the floor. After some ringside violence, he tosses Booker back in for Konnan. Just as it looks Booker might actually pull off this win, Norton and Vincent join Konnan to triple-team him for the DQ. (2:28) No one makes the save – not even Jackie – and we go straight to commercial. ¾*

NITRO GIRLS!

• WCW U.S. Champion Curt Hennig (w/Elizabeth) vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra)
  

This has potential, but Jarrett is just not over in Salt Lake City. Even though it’s after the 10PM hour, there’s still about ten minutes left. There’s headlocks and slams all over the place to start with Jarrett mostly in control. Hennig changes it up by going for Jarrett’s knee and wraps one of them around the post a few times. Hennig finds a chair and tries to jab Jarrett up against the ringpost, but misses. Jarrett sends Hennig’s face down on the chair anyways. Now Hennig gets his balls posted. Back inside, Jarrett gets a swinging neckbreaker and fights out of a sleeper with a jawbreaker. Jarrett follows up with a catapult and applies the FIGURE-FOUR. While Liz has the ref, Randy Savage runs out and slides the US belt to Hennig to smash Jarrett. Even though Jarrett is dead weight, he picks up Jarrett for the HENNIGPLEX for his first successful title defense. (8:52) The new World order come out to celebrate. They do a number on Jarrett as well, which brings out the Giant. OH THAT’S RIGHT. HE EXISTS. He scares away the nWo to close the show that has gone WAY past their time this week. **

WCW and Slim Jim presents Halloween Havoc on October 26 from Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Here is what the card looks like as we speak:

MAIN EVENT: Non-title Cage Match – Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage
Special Referee: Larry Zbyszko – Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall