WCW Monday Nitro
October 6, 1997
Minneapolis, MN
Target 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: Disco Inferno (9/22/1997)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Eddie Guerrero (9/14/1997)

Some people might complain for a lack of a video package or something, but at least they didn’t OVER-DO it like the WWF did by having his widow come on TV.

But enough about death and tragedy. NITRO GIRLS! Hey look, Chae’s boob is out.

Could this transition have come at a worst time? THANKS, CHAE.

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

Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff start the show. Tenay gets blasted by Tony for calling these two “gentlemen”. They are here to hype Hogan’s new TNT movie “Assault on Devil’s Island” that Vince McMahon is making fun of on the other program. They air a sneak peak. Ahh man, it’s also got Carl Weathers from Arrested Development! Since Bischoff and Hulk are going to rule TNT, now they discuss taking over Headline News as well. Can you imagine? Anyways, Hogan uses this as a not so subtle way of saying that Nitro puts out a better product than Raw. Hulk also mentions that WCW Commissioner Roddy Piper is on his way to Minneapolis. When Piper arrives, Hulk will be waiting to read him the riot act because the nWo is just TOO SWEET.

• Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) vs. Booker T (w/Jacqueline)
  

This is the last match of Jarrett’s first run in WCW. While Jarrett is strutting and taking Booker lightly, Tony tells us that Ric Flair is in Minneapolis looking for Curt Hennig. Well, I would say the Target Center is a good place to start, Ric. Jarrett trips up Booker and then delivers the Bossman straddle. Elbow drops are missed across the board, but Booker makes it look okay with the Spinaroonie! Harlem Side Kick connects and Jarrett bails to the floor as we take a commercial break. When we come back, Jarrett hits a flying body press for two. Booker fires back with a running forearm and another Harlem Side Kick. AXE KICK connects for 1-2-NO! Jarrett heads out again, but this time Steve McMichael appears to yell at Debra. When she slaps him, Mongo takes it out on Jarrett by putting him back in the ring. O’Connor roll on Jarrett and Booker gets the three-count. YES. (6:25 shown) Maybe WCW was just so hot at the time that they couldn’t do wrong, but Mongo/Jarrett is SUCH a heated rivalry. Every time those two interact, they draw incredible reactions from the crowd and this loss for Jarrett was no different. Really not a bad match either. If only you could tell these two what would happen at Bash at the Beach 2000 to get their reactions. Hogan does WHAT? **½

Over at the announce table, we find out that tonight’s main event will be Randy Savage against Chris Benoit. Larry Z offers Savage some Ben-Gay before the match. Larry chants all around.

• Alex Wright vs. Billy Kidman
  

Rematch from Saturday Night where apparently Kidman scored an upset win over Wright as they try and start up a losing streak for him after giving up the TV title to Disco Inferno. Wright tries to act all concerned and scared to start, but then draws Kidman into a false sense of security by kneeing him in the gut and pounding him out to the floor. When Kidman stands up, he spies Raven and the WCW debut of Perry Saturn sitting in the front row. Anyways, Kidman shoots back into the ring fired up and takes Wright to the floor. Kidman hits a plancha, but he’s the second guy back in the ring and pays for it. Meanwhile on the split-screen, Mongo and Debra are having an argument. Jarrett walks over trying to get Mongo to leave, but then Debra slaps Mongo and he comes up with an idea to settle this thing with Jarrett once and for all at Halloween Havoc. Back to the match, Kidman receives the flying stomp by Wright and makes a short comeback when he prevents the GERMAN SUPLEX from happening. He hits a facebuster and levels Wright by walking the ropes and hitting a bulldog for two. Instead of the Shooting Star Press, Kidman misses a 450 splash. Wright dances for a moment and then delivers a high angle GERMAN SUPLEX for the win. (6:03) So Raven is thinking right now, I can help you Kidman. All you have to do is shoot this stuff into your veins and you’ll be a STAR. *½

NITRO GIRLS! They get way more conservative with their outfits for the rest of the show.

• Ernest Miller vs. Mortis (w/James Vandenberg)
  

Miller controls to start, but Vandenberg crotches him up top. Mortis tries a Super Rocker Dropper, but Miller flubs it up. Mortis follows up with stomps in the corner and then delivers Okada’s Heavy Rain move. Vandenberg gets a shot in on Miller on the outside. Back in, Mortis delivers that leverage superplex that Cesaro does now for two. Tony announces that Jacqueline will get a TV title shot against Disco Inferno at Halloween Havoc – the first time EVER a woman went after a man’s title in the HISTORY of our sport. Let’s move forward. Mortis misses a flying splash, allowing Miller to fire back with a few kicks one big SPRINGBOARD ROUNDHOUSE KICK for the win. (5:33) Miller just can’t do anything but kick just yet. Mortis is very talented, but he was just stringing moves together. ¾*

Scott Hall and Syxx head out to take a little survey. Did Minneapolis come to see WCW? Kind of a mixed reaction. Did you come to see the nWo? Still a mixed reaction as far as I can tell. Kevin Nash hurt his knee and Scott Hall has his ribs taped. How did this happen? They were both watching old Larry Zbyszko matches and fell over laughing to the point that they hurt themselves. Hall calls out Lex Luger for sitting at home while once again the nWo carries the load. Dang. If Hall has to crawl to Halloween Havoc with Luger’s hand-picked referee, he’s going down. Hall directs a crotch chop at Lex Luger as we kick off the second hour.

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

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

Hall gets another chance at Garza after losing to him in 1-2-3 Kid fashion two weeks ago. Entertaining squash as Hall takes Garza seriously this week. After the Fallaway Slam, Hall corners the ref while Syxx runs in and gives Garza the Bronco Buster. OUTSIDER’S EDGE to Garza, Hall throws the ref down, and puts his foot on Garza’s chest as the ref counts three at 1:53. After the ref holds up Hall’s arm, Syxx kicks ref Billy Silverman in the back of the head for no reason. Hall then puts Silverman in the TORTURE RACK. Tony – “If you got bad ribs, you can’t rack a guy.” Thanks Tony. Once they put him down, Silverman gets a “Z” spraypainted on his back. Heenan doesn’t think any of that will happen to someone like Larry Z.

Tenay tells us all he knows right now about Bill Goldberg: he beat Hugh Morrus two weeks ago on Nitro and he used to play for the Atlanta Falcons.

NITRO GIRLS!

• WCW World Television Champion Disco Inferno vs. Diamond Dallas Page
  

Not a match you would think you would see this late in 1997. Crowd is molten for DDP, naturally. Disco actually makes the first move with an armdrag. Page then goes for the DIAMOND CUTTER, but Disco bails before he can get banged. Back inside, Disco plays around with hiptosses, but DDP gets the swinging neckbreaker. On the floor, Page gives Disco a baseball slide and then pescados to the floor. In the ring again, Disco beats up Page a little bit and delivers a neckbreaker of his own. Now it’s DDP’s turn. Pancake Slam leads to the DIAMOND CUTTER off the shoulders. Interestingly enough, Marc Mero debuts the same move tonight on Raw and calls it the TKO. Before Page can cover Disco and regain the TV title, Randy Savage runs out after DDP. (4:02) He runs DDP into the steps to incapacitate him until he can peel back the ringside mats. Savage wants to give DDP a PILEDRIVER ON THE CONCRETE, but Roddy Piper appears for the first time tonight and makes sure that doesn’t happen. When Savage looks over at Piper, Page spins Savage around and gives him a DIAMOND CUTTER on the concrete! Realizing what just happened, Roddy Piper takes a staggered DDP over the guardrail and away to safety. Out comes Hollywood Hogan and the rest of the nWo to check on their brother. They seem SUPER worried. Elizabeth is very upset. The EMT guys take forever trying to help him. Boy, Tony has no compassion on Savage whatsoever. He is almost glad this has happened on the nWo for once instead of a WCW guy. The crowd doesn’t seem to mind either as they sing the “Goodbye” song. So much for the main event, right? *

There’s two pretty good angles back to back to set up a fairly strong Halloween Havoc card.

Right after the commercial break, you wouldn’t think you would see much of Roddy Piper. OH, BUT WOULDN’T YOU KNOW, here he is in the ring with Gene Okerlund. He calls the nWo a bunch of liars specifically speaking to Scott Hall. He forces Hall and Nash to defend the WCW world tag titles next week on Nitro or they will have to give them up. Piper now makes DDP and Randy Savage at Halloween Havoc a last man standing match. Well, here comes Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Okerlund makes his exit. Say what you will about the cage match, but Hogan cuts a GREAT promo here to sell the PPV, because he is PISSED. With much conviction, Hogan tells Piper that he is the only ICON of professional wrestling simply because he still exists. He’s going to do Piper a favor at Halloween Havoc when he beats him once and for all to finally send him home to his wife and kids for good. Well, that just made it personal. All Piper has to do is stand there silently looking angrier and angrier. Hogan says he will beat Piper in the cage and there’s nothing he can do about it. He even goes as far as telling Piper that he’ll kick his ass right now. WHOA. Piper shoves him back, but Bischoff kicks him in the hip so that Hogan can beat the crap out of him. Once he’s out of it, Hogan picks up Piper and holds him for Bischoff to get in one good kick. Of course, Piper moves and Hogan gets nailed. Piper beats on Bischoff and then beats on Hogan as the crowd goes NUTS. Eventually, the nWo head out to help their leaders. Unfortunately for Hogan, he left the WCW world title in the ring for Piper to swing around like a crazy person. AWESOME.

NITRO GIRLS!

Mike Tenay does a voiceover for a Lucha Libre piece. We see Arena Mexico, a brief history of lucha libre in that building, and what rudos and tecnicos mean. Tenay also lists off the top promotions in Mexico. My favorite part? El Santo at the movies!

• WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon
  

Tonight’s main event will now be Chris Benoit against Curt Hennig for the US title. Eddie and Dragon do some monkey flips and tilt-a-whirl headscissors stuff to start. Eddie NO-SELLS one from Dragon and runs him down with a back elbow. Back suplex sets up the Hilo, but Dragon moves and they can’t get the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on the shoulders move we’re used to seeing Dragon do to smaller guys like Mysterio. Nevertheless, Eddie takes control and punishes Dragon with an ab stretch. Hurracanrana by Dragon gets two. I think Dragon is having an off night because Eddie’s timing is still very strong. After a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, Dragon gives Eddie his Kick Combo. To the floor, Dragon does the fake and then the suicide dive onto Guerrero. Back inside, Dragon can’t get the Running Liger Bomb, but can surprise Eddie with the DRAGON SLEEPER. Guerrero makes the ropes though. DRAGONSTEINER fails as well. Eddie catches Dragon with the Tornado DDT, but Dragon is out of position for the FROG SPLASH. He’s WAY on the other side of the ring. Eddie splashes him anyways and gets the three count. (6:07) A little disappointing considering how talented these two are. Just an off-night. **

• WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Curt Hennig vs. Chris Benoit
  

This is now being billed as another rematch from Saturday Night. Give it up, people. No one watches that show anymore. Anyways, Benoit/Hennig ended in a DQ when – you guessed it – the nWo interfered. Benoit meets Hennig in the aisle for a beating. Hennig takes a nasty fall where the back of his head hits the steps when he sells a Benoit chop. In the ring, Benoit continues to chop the crap out of Hennig. He even hangs Hennig out to dry in a pretty dangerous looking spot as Hennig may or may not have landed on his neck. From the apron, Benoit runs Hennig off to the floor for a Pillman bump to the guardrail. Back inside, Hennig stops Benoit up top and brings him down with a Dragon Screw leg whip. Hennig takes Benoit to school into a commercial break. When we come back, we’re heading passed the 10PM hour! FOLKS, WE’RE NOT OUTTA TIME. Hennig takes the turnbuckle pad off, but it’s used against him. Hennig stops the Hat Trick of Germans, but Benoit still chops him down. Now Benoit charges at the exposed turnbuckle to be easy pickings for the HENNIGPLEX. (5:01 shown) Shew. That was an intense five minutes. ***¼

A few nWo B-teamers come out and start beating on Benoit after the bell when RIC FLAIR shows up and cleans house. He chases Hennig clear out of the building (while easily blowing passed WCW security in a hilarious bit) and out into the street until he finally gives up and heads back to the arena to cut a scathing VINTAGE FLAIR promo. We’re doing this in the ring, Gene. WOO! Throughout his career, Flair has had everything done to him and he’s still here. Much to the dismay of the nWo, he’s back. This isn’t about politics or about being the best because ARGUABLY there’s nobody better. Hennig – you’re only nWo for three more weeks – because Flair is coming to get you and he’s coming to hurt you FOR REAL. Once Flair succeeds with that, he’s coming for Hollywood Hogan. If Hogan makes it to next year, he will have Flair in his face until they hook up right here on Monday Nitro. WOO!

Yeah, you just sold your PPV – AGAIN. Is it any wonder Halloween Havoc had the highest buy rate in 1997 of any wrestling PPV besides Starrcade?

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
WCW World Television Championship: Disco Inferno (c) vs. Jacqueline
Last Man Standing: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage
Special Referee – Larry Zbyszko: Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall
If Mongo wins, Debra leaves WCW: Steve McMichael vs. Jeff Jarrett