83 Weeks - Nitro 09.02.96 Watchalong [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Tony announced on the show that Mike Tenay would officially become a regular part of Nitro each week starting tonight.

Eric welcome back to 83 Weeks and we continue our path through the formation of the nWo and the chaos they brought to the table!

We’re up to September 2nd, 1996 where we have one of the big early turns from WCW to nWo. Also this is kind of officially the 1 year anniversary show of Nitro’s debut. What a 365 days wasn’t it Eric?

From the Observer … “four days before Nitro, on the day his WWF contract was set to expire, Smith signed a five-year contract, believed to be with a $250,000 per year downside guarantee, with the WWF. WCW's offer to Smith was said to be substantially higher, and for fewer dates per year. The original offer made to Smith months ago was a three year deal at $400,000 per year, and the latest offer had to be at least that figure if not higher. When Smith gave notice to the WWF three months back after his messed up PPV title match with Shawn Michaels, which wasn't that he was necessarily leaving but to avoid his contract rolling over, WCW officials secretly believed he was coming in. However, several weeks later, Smith's attorney sent WCW a letter saying that the two sides were unable to come to terms, and Smith also moved from Tampa back to Calgary, which most assumed meant he was no longer considering going to WCW since Tampa would be the perfect city to live given where most of the WCW events are scheduled. At this point Smith agreed to stay with WWF, with the lower money figure guaranteed reportedly not being the crux of the negotiating problems and it was more that he was unhappy about not being told of his future programs ahead of time and not getting what he thought was the push he was promised into the title picture.

Titan and Smith had been going back-and-forth over the past few weeks regarding actually signing the contract when negotiations with WCW picked up as WCW informed Smith they had no problem flying him in from Calgary as they do routinely with other regulars who live in foreign countries. What if any verbal deal Smith may have made with WCW is unknown, but when WCW shot the angle on 8/26 where Ted DiBiase talked of introducing No. 4 and No. 5, at that point WCW was apparently believing Smith to be No. 4.

When Vince McMahon got wind, which was believed to have been on 8/28, that Smith was on the verge of making a deal with WCW, he made a phone call to Smith along with WWF attorney Jerry McDevitt and finally reached him the next day and was said to have been furious. The bone of contention was that Smith had apparently made a verbal agreement to continue with the WWF and sign the five-year contract even though he had not actually signed and that Smith's attorney had already signed a preliminary entering into contract several weeks ago. The latter basically was that the two sides agreed that Smith was staying but that all terms hadn't been agreed to so he wouldn't have been phased out on television while details of the negotiations were still ongoing. Whether legal threats in regard to what would be perceived as going back on both the verbal and written agreement were made, as Titan was under the belief that it had a written agreement with Smith and obviously is going to enforce it, are not clear but by the end of the day both sides had agreed to terms and Smith signed the deal.”

So the big news coming out of this show is at the end so we’ll get there Eric but going into the show there is a lot of rumor & innuendo that Davey Boy Smith...the British Bulldog...was in talks to debut with WCW at this show. How close did you get to making an agreement with Davey or is this just fiction from Dave Meltzer?

We’re gonna need you to fire up your Peacock machine and make your way to Season 2 and Episode 34 for this one.

3-2-1!

We’re live from Chattanooga, TN at the UTC Arena with a pretty healthy house of 5,180 paid. Is this around the time you started to notice TV tapings attendance starting to creep up?

Do you attribute that directly to the formation of the nWo?

We open with Tony Schiavone & Larry Zybysko and we’re getting right into the first match...Alex Wright vs. Diamond Dallas Page. How much of a booking directive do you have that DDP needs to be in the ring with good opponents that can make him look good to get him going?

DDP gets the win in 3:35. Of the WCW cruiserweights where would you rank Alex Wright? Meltzer really liked this as he gave it ***.

Mean Gene interviews Nick Patrick afterwards about his counts and he just kind of points out that all referees suck. Amazing that this is a focus in creative but I get it…

Also from the Observer is that Sean Waltman’s debut is delayed again due to legal wrangling. “The other new member in the original plan, Sean Waltman, was also not introduced on the show, apparently because he's also being held up as a pawn in the legal battle between the two companies. The latest word we've heard is to play it safe and to avoid giving WWF more ammunition in its lawsuit against WCW, that WCW at least as of our last word wasn't going to use Waltman for nine months, until his WWF contract expires.”

How hard is it putting a weekly format and storylines together to introduce people when all you’re running into is legal issues?

Any truth to the rumor that the WWF release to Sean Waltman “got lost in the mail” which caused Waltman to not get it and for him not to debut here?

Can we talk about Gene and Marcus Bagwell and the denim shirt Eric? Goodness.

From the Observer.. “Halloween Havoc tickets went on sale on 8/31 in Las Vegas with a major autograph party with Savage, Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund. WCW set an all-time dollar record for first day sales, doing approximately $94,000 although that was only 2,000 tickets for the MGM Grand because the first six rows of seats, which went almost immediately, were all priced at $100.”

How big a deal is this to you and Zane Bresloff that these on-sale gimmicks are working? Does it show that announcing a main event with some time also helps?

Col. Robert Parker & Sherri in the back with Gene and Parker gives Sherri a vest and chaps...for his horse at the ranch. Jesus Eric.

Mark Curtis is in the ring for the first time as a WCW referee and he’s reffing Harlem Heat defending the WCW World Tag Team Titles against Greg Valentine (!) & Buddy Valentino. First we get a shot of Ted DiBiase coming down to ringside. Real quick Eric...how did you come to know Mark Curtis and who recommended him to you?

It’s reported in the Observer that he replaced Randy Eller. Any recollection of what happened there?

You are going uncontested on this show Eric as Raw is delayed to Friday due to the US Open. Also from the Observer at this time… “There were hints at the end of the show of more NWO members being introduced, and one is believed to be Jeff Jarrett, whose WWF contract expires on 10/4. Bam Bam Bigelow, who hasn't wrestled for the WWF for nearly one year, also has a WWF contract that expires over the next several weeks and WCW had expressed interest in using him when his contract expired, although we haven't heard his name in connection with coming to WCW since June when Eric Bischoff talked to Bigelow about coming when his WWF contract expired at the World Wrestling Peace Festival.”

What were the negotiations like with Jeff Jarrett at the time and did you deal with Jeff or Jerry?

Did you have any thoughts on bringing Bam Bam Bigelow in at this time? Did you have a conversation with him at the World Peace Festival?

Nasty Boys attack Harlem Heat after the win to set up their match at Fall Brawl which we covered in the archives!

Here comes Mike Tenay and that means Cruiserweight action in Dean Malenko & Chris Jericho. Just one of the many times they’ve met up and one of the early bests. Meltzer gives it a *** ½ rating but it’s crazy to think we just saw Jericho and MJF on AEW two weeks ago and here’s Jericho so young with a young Dean Malenko.

They go to a resthold so it gives time for Ted DiBiase to walk away and distract the fans and the camera.

Announcers are really focusing on Nick Patrick’s counts too. Everything here this week has a reason and a build to the main event. Do you think this is missing a lot in the creative processes now from what we see on TV?

Jericho gets the upset pin on Malenko and establishes himself as a player going forward.

A video promoting Rey vs. Super Calo at Fall Brawl pushes us into commercial.

Back from commercial and for Saturday Night we got...Steve McMichael vs. John Tenta. I mean Eric way to push the b-shows...

The Giant vs. Brad Armstrong is next and in a very great subtle fashion Tony Schiavone wonders why Giant didn’t just chokeslam Brad and that he seems distracted. Very nuanced creative here Eric.

So the angle is the nWo has a limo outside with Hulk, Scott & Kevin and they keep the 4th man in the limo because of the cameras. This is important to follow as it’s the show long storyline. You’ve long preached that show long storylines are very important. Why is that?

And then Giant chokeslams him and the match is over.

The following announcement is paid for by the nWo...who came up with that opening and closing line?

The editing and chopping up of these promos really is super underrated when you take a look at history. How important is production in fine tuning good creative?

Hogan takes a shot at Giant and Flair in the promo for War Games. How last minute is the Giant turn decided or was this just a swerve type thing in the promo?

Hour #2! Time to see Eric and Bobby and we even have Mike Tenay. Did you enjoy working with Mike?

We got Ron Studd and now Randy Savage in the ring to kick off the second hour. We see the nWo exit the limo during this match which Savage wins in almost 2 minutes then we get a classic Savage promo…

How much fun is working with Randy at this time? You’ve often talked about Randy’s contract coming up around this time...what is he like to deal with?

Here come the Horsemen...Ric, Arn, Benoit & Mongo to discover the nWo’s limo is actually empty. Where is the 4th man?

Rick & Scott Steiner vs Sting & Lex goes 40 seconds when Lex grazes Nick Patrick and he calls for the DQ. Innovative finish with a heel ref Eric. Do you think this was the peak for the heel ref of Nick Patrick’s run because after this it’s just kind of bleh. How far can you really go with a heel ref?

From the Observer: “What happened was they didn't do the Steiners vs. Sting & Luger match because Scott is injured and can't work so they did a 39 second match when it was blocked off for 6:00, and the Randy Savage squash that week also went short and the eight-man didn't make up for the lost time for whatever reason.”

This results in the show going off the air 8 minutes early. How does this happen and who timed out the shows back then? Sullivan?

We got the Four Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom going 4 vs 4 in the ring Eric.

Sting & Luger chase Patrick out of the arena and hop into a police car to chase Ted DiBiase as well so Sting & Luger are now gone and out of the arena. Keep the story going Eric!

Sting throws a cement block through the window and you say that’s very unlike Sting. Man Eric not enough people give you the credit for the little details but a lot of them are here and it’s great.

Kevin Sullivan and Steve McMichael...is an experience.

The pop Flair gets to be tagged in is gigantic. I know Ric loves working heel but he had some amazing babyface moments.

Arn gets heat on him as we go to commercial and come back to a reminder that Glacier is coming. Soon...2 weeks in fact...maybe we should cover that?

Benoit and Sullivan rolling around is...weird looking back at it wouldn’t you agree?

Another hot tag after a brawl and Flair locks on the figure four and with the help of Woman gets the pin on Sullivan. Interesting finish here as Benoit kind of chides Woman about getting involved and there’s a lot of inside baseball here. When did this all fall apart?

So now we get to the big angle...so let’s go back to the Observer.

“After the Horseman won the match, the NWO came out and in typical heel fashion, the three members beat up eight WCW wrestlers, half of whom would be considered top names (and people think it's surprising that people are cheering NWO). Finally The Giant came running down the aisle to apparently make the save for the out-manned WCW side, but instead turned on that side, getting a huge face pop from the hot crowd and joined NWO (as if they were needing any help by this point) and began destroying everyone in sight. Finally Randy Savage did a run-in and began hitting the NWO members with a chair. Since eight guys weren't nearly enough to stand up to three, Savage had little chance going against four and wound up being overpowered by the four and leg dropped three times by Hogan. When the Dungeon and Horseman recovered after selling about as three times as long as would be feasible, their comebacks were far too easily thwarted. The NWO then chased the announcers from the set and destroyed the set (which I'm told they weren't supposed to do and that's an expensive set). After an interview where they started by talking about Ted DiBiase's money being the catalyst for the Giant turn, Giant started talking about being in this giant house with 20 Harleys but instead of continuing with the DiBiase money storyline, instead was talking about Hogan's house. At one point in the middle of the ranting and raving, the Horsemen and Dungeon again came to the set to do their eight-on-four attack and the NWO members once again pounded them into the ground as if it were nothing, and continued the interview nonchalantly. It was a great angle as far as gaining attention and further putting NWO over, but it got so ridiculous that it wound up killing the opposition in the process, making Flair and Anderson look like impotent old men who were totally out of their league as opposed to two people who fans couldn't wait to see get revenge from the previous weeks' great angle. Benoit and McMichael for the second straight week were made to look like common jobbers, as were the Dungeon members. The Giant turn was WCW's last minute panic move since it had promised to introduce two new members of the NWO on the 9/2 television show.

The plan to make the Horseman look like jobbers wasn't the original angle, but a revised angle came up with by Hogan which has caused at least a few of the wrestlers to complain once again Hogan is booking for his own ego rather than for business. The original plan was to create a situation where the Horsemen would be involved in a scenario where they would jump and run off Hall and Nash, and about that time Hogan would arrive and be by himself. As he was being beaten on, then the Giant would come out for the finishing touches on Hogan, but instead Giant would choke slam all the Horsemen. However, Hogan refused that scenario and came up with the one that was used.”

OK Eric was that the original plan and did Hulk veto it and put this all together?

From the Observer: “Ric Flair (whose contract expires in November) once again made noises about taking time off and Steve McMichael is said to be pretty unhappy about how everything went down. Other mid-card wrestlers are also unhappy because of the belief that Hogan won't let anyone else but his guys get over, and they're already over so they don't have to hold anyone else back. Of course, with the ratings where they are and Hogan signed through 1998, don't expect things to change much.”

How unhappy are these guys and are you made aware of it?

It was obviously time to make the Giant into an actual human instead of this quiet mythical creature as that would only last for so long. Was Paul ready at this point do you think?

Did the destruction of the set cause the nWo heat and WCW dollars? In the Observer Dave said it cost somewhere around $40,000.

What did you think of the show Eric?

The show gets a 4.3 rating going unopposed against Raw.