Week #2 - Lane

WCW Monday Nitro

Miami, FL

Attendance: 3,183

Rating: 2.5

Best Match: Alex Wright defeated Sabu by reversed decision (3:57). This was a good showcase for Sabu, and most people forget how good Alex Wright was early on. Wright earned that name Das Wunderkind. That said, this was too short for my taste, but not much else to pick.

Worst Match: Randy Savage defeated Scott Norton (5:39). Ugh. This may be exhibit #1 in the Monday Night War review of a new star that should be put over doing the job to one of the establishment. Scott Norton winning here after DOD interference does nothing to hurt Savage, and only helps to establish Norton.

Best Segment: Umm… I guess I have to go with the ending. Obviously they had to replace Big Van Vader in the War Games match, so they needed to get the heelish Luger into the team. One of my favorite things WCW did in this time period was having a heelish to full heel Luger as working with his buddy Sting.

Worst Segment: I’ll speak more on it later, but there isn’t much to choose from here. I refuse to pick a Ric Flair promo, so I’m going to go with what Toth said. The weird reversed decision on the Sabu/Wright match confused me. I know what they were going for, but I think it wasn’t needed.

Hottest Feud: I’m still going with Arn vs. Flair here. These are my people. The Luger interruption was weird, but I do think it kind of plays into the meta behind this program, since Luger is a former Horsemen.

Coldest Feud: Norton/Mongo? Is this even a feud? Throw Savage in there? Either way, it’s some weird stuff I have no need for.

Star of the Show: Sabu. No one else was really presented above anyone else except for maybe Hogan. Sabu was put over for being a different animal from what the rest of the roster was at the time.

General Commentary: I feel like WCW didn’t know what they wanted to do with Nitro yet. They put big matches on the show, but did false finishes to sell PPVs. This seemed more like an early Thunder for me, where they never did anything important. Saturday Night was still the flagship, for at least a little while longer. I know we still have months of it, but Hogan vs. the Dungeon is just an interest killer. Even as a kid, I remember just shaking my head at it. I watched WCW for Ric Flair and Sting, not Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.

This show was not great, and I hope to see Nitro improve as weeks go on.

WWF Monday Night Raw

Canton, OH

Attendance: 1,600

Rating: 2.2

Best Match: The British Bulldog defeated Razor Ramon via DQ (7:10). This is a good example of how to run a match to progress a storyline without making everyone look bad. Douglas and the Kid both got involved and this match just came off well. I feel like everyone looked better coming out of this match.

Worst Match: Dr. Issac Yankem defeated Scott Taylor (2:14). He wasn’t yet Kane, but Yankem was still really green. He could have benefited from a lot more time down in Memphis or SMW or wherever he was working to learn. Of course, he’d be in and out of there until he got the Kane gimmick.

Best Segment: Kid and Razor coming to their boiling point. From the moment the Kid debuted on the roster and got that first win, you knew this moment would be coming. Waltman is nowhere near as smooth as Razor, but that somehow made the moment better for me, playing off of real emotion.

Worst Segment: HBK and Diesel being interviewed by Dok Hendrix. Listen, I understand that people love Shawn Michaels. I, however, do not. He wouldn’t be a good promo for another year and a half, and this whole segment was just cheesy and didn’t really do much to plug the big IYH main event.

Hottest Feud: Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas. Yeah, Dean was cheesy, but this feud was a really good clash. It’s a shame Douglas burned all of his bridges because he was really a great talent.

Coldest Feud: Don’t have much for this one. I’ll go with the PPV main event. Don’t feel that much is going on with it. I guess All The Titles is supposed to be the sell?

Star of the Show: Razor Ramon. Everyone wants a piece of Da Bad Guy, and he shined in this type of role.

General Commentary: I wouldn’t call this a great show, but it’s exactly what I’d expect from a Raw in this era. They advances some storylines, while still keeping TV as an important player. I don’t know that the WWF had figured out exactly how they wanted to handle the IYH events, as they still seem as more like gimmick shows than the big PPVs were.

Either way, this was a good little show. WWF has some momentum right now.

Who Wins: WWF Monday Night Raw

My Score – WWF (1) to WCW (0)

Blog Score – WWF (1) to WCW (0)