83 Weeks - Firing Randy Anderson: Nitro Watchalong 01.27.97 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Eric we’re continuing our look back at 25 years ago in WCW during one of the hottest times. We covered Souled Out 1997 in the archives and you recently did a Watch Along exclusively over at AdFreeShows.com.

This is the Nitro coming off that show and the fallout from nWo Souled Out.

Now the rumor and innuendo was at one time you were looking at doing two monthly pay-per-views - a WCW one and a nWo one…any truth to that rumor?

When a show like Souled Out happens and you’re coming off it…from a creative standpoint do you feel the need to have Nitro be a home run?

Open up your Peacock and get to season 3 episode 4!

As this show opens let’s talk about what’s going on in the World Wrestling Federation. It’s reported in the Observer that the WWF and USA were in heavy talks about expanding Monday Night Raw to 2 hours and also going live. What do you remember hearing of this and did you feel like it was going to hurt you?

This Nitro draws 3,970 paying $63,439 in Des Moines, IA. Is it tough going from 10,000 people for a couple straight weeks and then having a house like this?

From the Observer: “It opened with Eric Bischoff firing referee Randy Anderson for running into the ring and making the count in the Steiners match. Bischoff said that by accepting a free ticket from WCW to the NWO show (think about the logic of this, although thinking about logic in wrestling is a fruitless exercise, that they said on television the promoter of the show was Elliot Murnick who they identified in the angle as a WCW promoter but it was supposed to have been an NWO show) that he was a biased referee taking gratis. They brought up that he had cancer this past year (a true story they got planted in a newspaper this past week to set up their angle) while Bischoff laughed and fired him. Bischoff then ordered the Steiners to give back the belts or be fired and basically the Steiners came off as total wimps giving back the belts because a wrestling babyface portrayal is they would have gotten fired for standing up for what they believed in rather than backing down to authority. Steiners then had a god-awful match beating Meng & Barbarian.”

So Randy Anderson begins his semi-fued with you. Why Randy?

Did he have any issue with bringing up his cancer?

Was Meltzer pointing out a legit logic gap or do you think that’s just him nitpicking?

Who planted the story in a newspaper for Randy?

What do you think of the criticism here of the Steiners looking like weak babyfaces? Is that something you wish there was more of - babyfaces standing up for what they believe in?

I don’t think the Steiners vs. Faces of Fear was godawful Eric. I actually think it was pretty good. But there’s some messyness in there. Did these 4 just like to go in there and beat the shit out of each other?

An interesting note in the Observer I wanted to ask you about: “Gaea Japan will be holding a tournament in mid-February to create a WCW womens cruiserweight champion with Chihiro Nakano, Meiko Satomura, Sugar Sato (who has the potential to become a big star), Makie Numao, Sonoko Kato, Chikayo Nagashima, Kyoko Ichiki, Maiko Matsumoto, Toshie Uematsu and coming from the U.S. will be Malia Hosaka. Chigusa Nagayo & Akira Hokuto will be forming a tag team on most of the Gaea main events.”

Why Gaea? Was it just the company you were able to make a deal with? Did Sonny Onoo have anything to do with this? Was New Japan receptive to this type of deal?

It’s reported in the Observer that Sports South dropped not just WCW but ECW programming when the station was purchased by FOX from Turner. There’s a lot of moving parts in syndication during this time isn’t there?

“Giant choke slammed Road Block in 1:48.”

Meltzer does not talk about what Giant does here - A STANDING DROPKICK. Like holy shit Eric. Is this the new babyface Giant?

Giant challenges Hogan to another match again tonight. Did we really need another one of their matches Eric?

“Jeff Jarrett beat Eddie Guerrero by DQ in 4:34 of a good match when Steve McMichael hit Jarrett with the briefcase on purpose much to the chagrin of Debra.”

Why couldn’t you just give them 10 minutes to go balls to the wall? What could’ve been right Eric?

This whole Jarrett - Debra - Mongo storyline - we covered on My World and even Jeff said he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. When the talent is having issues figuring things out is that a good sign for what you’re doing creatively?

Here comes the finish to Starrcade but you steal the tape before we can see the finish. Gotta admit that’s good shit there pal.

“ Ultimo Dragon pinned Billy Pearl (Northeast indie wrestler Bryan Walsh) in a good squash.”

Eric - you got a bunch of people under contract - did you really need an indie worker coming in and wrestling Ultimo Dragon?

So at the time there was chatter online…yes online Eric…that these Horsemen segments with Jarrett and no advancement in the storyline was turning into the intermission or bathroom break. You have Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and none of it makes any sense. Someone had to care enough to be like - what are we doing here?

“Lex Luger racked St. Louis indie wrestler Ron Powers in 1:13. Even in that short period of time Powers looked good.”

Luger and Giant come together as they apparently both represent what WCW stands for. What does WCW stand for Eric?

“McMichael & Arn Anderson beat French Canadians when McMichael hit Jacques Rougeau with the briefcase.”

This is Arn’s last match in WCW if you don’t count the bullshit stuff he did in 2000 with David. It’s crazy to look back and see this is it for Arn is it not?

Also it’s reported in the Observer that Jacques Rougeau and WCW will be holding a press conference that has Jacques vs. Hogan in Montreal. Meltzer says there’s rumblings that Jack Tunney was going to be involved. Did you ever have any conversations with Jack? What was the relationship like with Jacques when it came to promoting?

“In a dig at ECW, Ace Darling & Devon Storm came out as "The Extreme" team and were annihilated in 1:58 in a tag title match against Kevin Nash & Scott Hall.”

So who was the thought process behind Team Extreme here? Did you do this to piss off ECW? Devon Storm - the future Crowbar - what was it about him that took years to get over?

Kevin Sullivan vs Joe Gomez is up next and it’s so quick Meltzer doesn’t even cover it in his recap. 37 seconds and it’s over.

“During a Hogan interview, Sting & Savage were together watching the action from the stands.”

Hulk is talking about movies that never got released to theaters and no-sells the Giant challenge but then pretty much accepts but says the Outsiders will be at ringside. Does it make WCW look weak when the nWo lets them know ahead of time they’ll have reinforcements with them and then the WCW guys come out with nobody?

From the Observer: “Savage's new contract was for a limited amount of dates and for $1,000,000 per year. Apparently the deal was completed about the time the Savage Slim Jim commercials started appearing once again. WCW is justifying the deal because they were going to lose the Slim Jim sponsorship without Savage, and that brings in about $500,000 per year by itself. We had heard talk that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were both given raises. Their original deal was $780,000 per year but Nash did a newspaper interview in Detroit and he claimed he was making $900,000.”

My goodness Eric that number is ridiculous but with Savage’s raise comes Kevin & Scott’s because of the Favored Nations clause correct?

Jerry Flynn is challenging Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight title. I don’t imagine Flynn as a cruiserweight but here we are. Why did Jerry Flynn get so many chances do you think in WCW Eric?

Malenko gets the win in just under 3 minutes with the cloverleaf.

“They announced that Roddy Piper was given a title shot for SuperBrawl at the Cow Palace but that they didn't know if he'd accept it or not. WCW wanted Piper on the show, but since everything is done at the last second, Piper had other commitments. Piper is supposed to be at the 2/3 Nitro in Memphis.”

Does that kind of kill the Giant - Hogan match tonight? Was this something decided upon to announce last second so you were unable to get Roddy there that night? Why have the tease that you’re not sure if Piper will accept the match? Why wouldn’t he?

Also - “WCW had huge first day advances for SuperBrawl in San Francisco (3,842 tickets and $76,020) and for the 3/3 Nitro in Atlanta at the Omni (3,704 tickets and $63,837). The stories about fans camping out the night before in San Francisco weren't made up, and that has never happened before even when WWF was at its hottest nor has there ever been a first-day sale like that in the history of SF or Atlanta wrestling.”

This has to be amazing to hear right Eric?

“Hugh Morrus without the Dudley outfit pinned Chris Benoit in 3:07 when Miss Texas, who wasn't given a name yet, showed up to shock and distract Nancy and Kevin Sullivan then hit Benoit with a chair to set up the moonsault leading to the pin. The gimmick is that Sullivan and Miss Texas were lovers in the past and she's trying to get back with him now that he and Nancy have split. Miss Texas' first interview was really bad. I believe it's going to wind up at the Cow Palace with Miss Texas handcuffed to Nancy while Sullivan has yet another falls count anywhere match with Benoit.”

Hall of Famer Jacqueline Moore is Miss Texas - this is Kevin Sullivan bringing her in specifically for this angle correct?

Was this the plan like Meltzer says? Does adding Jackie to this make it uncomfortable considering everything that’s going on or are you unaware at this point of of Nancy & Benoit?

How does Kevin Sullivan always find the one balsa-wood chair in the whole arena? That’s talent.

“Main event was another Hogan-Giant title match. These matches are getting progressively worse, and that's hard to do. This went 2:55 before Hall & Nash interfered for the DQ. This time as they were beating up Giant, Luger made the save for him as the show went off the air.”

Was it getting redundant at this point? I mean this is 3 big matches between these two in 3 weeks - Nitro with Robin Hood, the pay-per-view match the night before and now this. Does this all make Giant look weak with no wins?

From the Observer: “Kevin Greene was on ESPN talking about the Super Bowl and brought up WCW and the NWO angle and talked about wanting to get back into WCW for matches during the off-season. Greene acted as if it was real and didn't treat it as if it was a joke even though the hosts tried to. WCW has plans to run a major PPV out of Charlotte in May with Greene & Ric Flair as a tag team.”

Is it a big deal to you the connection with Kevin Greene moving forward?

The show gets a 3.6 rating and a 5.4 share with 2.8 for the first hour and a 4.4 for the second hour. Raw gets a 2.2 rating and a 3.1 share. The Nitro replay has a 1.4 rating and a 3.3 share. These numbers are just insane looking back.

Next week Eric - we’re going to be discussing Against All Odds 2012 in a return to talking about TNA as you’ll soon be finishing up your run there as an on-air character. The show is headlined by Bobby Roode defending his TNA Title with Sting as the special guest enforcer against Bully Ray, James Storm and Jeff Hardy…Garett will be taking on Gunner with you in Gunner’s corner and Garett having Hulk Hogan in his, but what this show is probably most well-remembered for is Jesse Sorensen being injured against Zema Ion.

Also coming up over at AdFreeShows.com I know you recently sat down with Konnan to discuss things about his career that you didn’t even know coming off our 83 Weeks episode in January and it sounds like you’ll be doing another Eric Fires Back over at AFS. We’re definitely leveling up your experience there so be sure to sign up today!