83 Weeks - Nitro 04.07.97 Watchalong [Show Notes] (Patreon)

We’re back in our 25 year anniversary mode this week Eric! Get your Peacock out everyone and we’ll get started on a show I was in attendance for!

We’re coming off Spring Stampede which you can check out in the archives. But DDP beat Randy Savage in the main event when heel referee Nick Patrick still ends up counting the 3. The show goes off the air with you Eric and Randy Savage going at it and he shoves you down and for the first time there’s signs of dissension in the group without Hollywood Hogan at the show.

How intense is Randy in the ring when you’re doing this angle? The next day Randy realizes his ankle is messed up and it’s reported he may have torn ligaments. When did you hear that Randy was worse from wear the night after the PPV?

By the way, it's reported in the Observer you attended the New Japan 25th anniversary show. What was that party like?

With this being the first time there’s turmoil in the nWo…are you worried that you may go to that well one too many times this early in the story? Or is it unnatural to have a group of all these men and egos and not have issues?

Opening the show with Konnan & Hugh Morrus taking on Psychosis & Alex Wright…which is quite the odd pairing. Fans are fucking fired up tonight…you’re welcome!

This show draws 6,058 paying $83,711 and Meltzer would report this is the first Nitro that doesn’t sell out in 7 weeks…so sorry about that…

This…is a styles clash. I mean I know Konnan knows luchadores so that helps with Psychosis but this is just a mess.

DDP arriving and he’s banged up as well. That’s a work though right?

It’s written in the Observer that there’s a working idea for Slamboree of doing Piper, Flair & McMichael against Kevin Greene, Reggie White & Jeff Jarrett. That…can’t be real right Eric?

Morris gets the win with a moonsault on Psychosis.

Why…is the Dungeon of Doom still happening?

Next up you got Rey Misterio and Steven Regal but neither get entrances. What happens when you map out a show and the guys don’t get TV entrances?

Then the nWo arrives. No respect for Regal or Mysterio huh?

Meltzer would report that coming out of Spring Stampede the plan is to make Starrcade WCW’s WrestleMania and that’s when the payoff to Sting vs. Hogan is going to happen with the build of it being the biggest match in the history of the company. When did it turn a corner to you that this was the match?

Regal gets the Stretch on Rey and Rey grabs the ropes…but the ultimate blue blood heel Regal doesn’t break and is disqualified. Meltzer would talk about the height difference and it made the match hard to take seriously. Prince Iaukea comes out and also gets put into the Stretch. The look on Regal’s face while Iaukea is in the hold and Regal is stone cold is fucking chilling Eric. What a great performer…

Meltzer also comments that if the company was serious about making Mysterio a mainstream star…they should start booking him like one. Was that the plan for Rey to make him a mainstream star?

The National Enquirer is still going with the Rey - Jennifer Anniston story. What kind of silly shit is this?

Great story in the Observer. “Rey Misterio Jr.'s wife gave birth to the couple's first child at 6:30 p.m. on 4/5, an eight pound, nine ounce baby boy named Dominic. It was a big joke in the locker room because Rey's boy was bigger than Kevin Nash's boy.”

DOMINIC! HAHA! How great is that?

Scott Hudson debuts with WCW. Were you hiring announcers at this time or was Schiavone? What did you think of Scott?

The rest of the nWo arrives and we get stills of Nash vs. Steiner for the Tag Team Titles…in a singles match. How tough is it to deal with Scott Hall and his issues?

Ted DiBiase isn’t happy with the amount of punishment Steiner received from Nash. More dissension in the nWo. Was it time to start splitting people out or rotating in new members?

Chris Benoit vs. Ice Train is next. Woman is…roll tide. In the back the nWo is falling apart at the seams it seems with Hogan throwing the belt down and Savage isn’t happy … Nash walks away and Scott Norton is the peace maker!

Back to the ring and Woman takes Teddy Long down … yup that’s a real sentence…and Benoit hits a DDT for the win.

Double Team premier Eric…tell me about it.

Kevin Sullivan is next and he’s taking on Hector Guerrero. Hector is the older brother of Eddie. Where did Hector coming in come from?

Hector and Eddie by the way could be considered twins at this point.

Jackie slams Hector. What a pro to take that from her right?

Sullivan gets the win with a double stomp. What a squash Eric.

nWo is out and man what a promo mess this is. DiBiase wants to fix the problems. Hogan says that Nash has a problem with the belt and throws it down, saying it means nothing. Huh?

Nash says he used to be a ball player so no issue with Rodman but Kevin spent Easter Sunday in a hotel room with Syxx which I guess is something he didn’t want to be doing? That seems like a shoot haha

Hogan says next Easter there can be an Easter Egg hunt but where’s Scott?

How comfortable were you doing storylines about Scott when Scott wasn’t there?

Nash says Hall is nWo for life and remember how Hulk joined this thing and were all brothers and it’s a big hug but you can tell Savage isn’t happy and he says you & him are on probation with each other. Savage is so good at being that senile out of control guy…how much of that is an actual work?

Meltzer would say this…”For what is supposed to be a group of heels, the entire segment came down like everyone was trying to play cool babyface.”

Looking back…not a wrong assessment right?

Hour #2…and here comes Ric Flair and Meannnnn WHOO Gene.

Now here’s Piper & Greene and it’s cut a promo on the nWo time as that’ll be the main event for Slamboree. Is it odd to have Flair be a part of the Horsemen and not be teaming with the Horsemen?

As Meltzer would say… “As usual when Flair & Piper are together, the charisma is incredible and the interview makes absolutely no sense but they can get away with it.”

Truer words. They challenge Hogan, Nash & Hall…buttttt….

It’s reported in the Observer that the original plan was for the nWo to come out and accept the challenge, but the feeling is that Hogan doesn’t want to do it so it’ll be Hall & Nash & Syxx in the match instead. Was that the original plan?

Meltzer brings up that the original story with Flair’s injury was Hall, Nash & Syxx beat him up with baseball bats to put him out of action but it’s ignored completely. Where do you think the miss was on this storyline?

US Title match which should be awesome is between Dean Malenko and Chris Jericho. This is a legit 3 minute awesome sprint. Malenko gets the win but god they did so much in 3 minutes.

High Voltage jumps Public Enemy to start their match and it’s another 3 minute match but quick and hard hitting. PE misses the table and High Voltage gets the win. After the match PE challenges High Voltage to a Philadelphia street fight and they’ll take it back to their roots and get extreme. Eric I gotta ask…ECW’s Barely Legal is on the 13th and you’re running Nitro the next day in Philly…was that a coincidence?

Harlem Heat taking on Jeff Jarrett & Steve McMichael but Mongo doesn’t show up for like 7 minutes. 3 years later Booker and Jarrett would be main eventing for the WCW Title…

They work on Jarrett…for…ever…this is way too long isn’t it?

McMichael finally comes down almost 8 minutes in…gets the hot tag…and tags Jarrett back in and Jarrett loses quickly after.

There’s a promo afterwards… well I’ll let Meltzer say it… “After the match Jarrett and Debra asked Steve where he was, and Steve, following in the WCW tradition, was apparently supposed to say something to the effect of how mad he was that Flair was teaming with his enemy Greene. Anyway, if they put English subtitles under the gibberish McMichael said in that interview, that's the gist of what he was saying.”

Here’s Prince Iaukea defending his WCW TV title against Ultimo Dragon even though he was injured earlier in the night and the Iaukea experiment ends in 2 minutes when Dragon gets the win with kicks to the ribs.

It’s crazy to take a look at the business though at this time. In 1995 - 2 years prior - US champion was Sting and TV champion Arn Anderson. Now two years later you got Dean Malenko and Ultimo Dragon as those champions. The size difference in those two sides are noticeable. Do you think that’s the transition in the change in business?

Scott Steiner vs. Giant is to be the main event but Konnan & Hugh Morrus attacks Steiner before the match and Giant runs them off and saves him. According to Meltzer the show was running so long that they were scheduled to have a 5 minute match and ran out of time for it. Do you know which segment would’ve caused this?

We booed Eric. We booed a lot. Didn’t we deserve a main event?

DDP with a superstar promo is closing this show. If he had gotten his hands on Savage when he had his hands on Kim he would’ve killed him. Here’s Savage and then Hogan and here comes Sting from the ceiling. And the baseball bat is pointed at them with one handed to DDP first.

What a finish Eric. The repelling from the ceiling…who’s idea was that?

Ratings for the show saw Nitro have a 3.69 rating and a 6.03 share while Raw who had two Steve Austin matches and a Ken Shamrock squash on Vernon White sees a 2.19 rating and a 3.44 share which is one of the biggest margins at this point. This is a great win with not a lot thrown out there. What did you think of the show Eric?

From the Observer: “There is tons of behind-the-scenes heat in regard to the different factions. There is the Kevin Sullivan faction and the Hulk Hogan faction, of which Kevin Nash seems to be the most vocal member. The interview Nash did ending the show on 3/31 was totally not what it was supposed to be. Sullivan wanted him to do a promo running down Hogan and Bischoff for not being there and going to the Rodman thing instead (which he did) as an idea for a one-week storyline to build up this week's ratings, which it did. But Sullivan also asked him to run down Scott Hall, which he refused to do apparently believing it was some kind of a trick and instead praised Hall and did the rest of his interview talking about Little Napoleon (Sullivan) backstage giving orders. All this shoot stuff makes for fascinating television for some people, but it's one thing if it's Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels using it as ammo to sell tickets for an eventual match, but to do it in that way and waste TV time airing real stuff on a fake TV show is kind of unprofessional.”

When this type of thing happens who do you go to? Who do you attempt to police?

“Antonio Pena has filed suit against WCW claiming that the Mexican wrestlers they signed contracts to were done so illegally since they were all under contract originally to him. As mentioned before, one of the bargaining chips Pena used in starting a deal with WWF was that all the Mexicans in WCW that were doing so well in the ratings he had under contract so he could send to WWF. Who knows how this will end up being sorted out.”

What do you remember of this if anything?