[1996-07-22-WCW-Nitro] Sting & Lex Luger & Randy Savage vs Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Good, high-energy match, in spite of Mongo trying really hard, but messing up nearly everything he tried. Savage gets the briefcase back, that presumably has all of his money in it. Flair is supposed to be in the match and no-shows, which leads to speculation that he has joined the NWO.

[shoe]

This was solid stuff. Mongo looks clumsy as hell. I thought he was going to hurt Sting. Mongo's 2nd rope shoulder block was pretty great though.

[FLIK]

Other then furthering some plot points for a few diffrent feuds this didn't hold up for me as anything worth checking out and boy oh boy is that Benoit/Woman post match confrontation 8 million kinds of uncomfortable to watch now.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Watching Benoit unload his offense on Sting seemed weird to me. I started watching wrestling in August of 1997 and I really bought into the Glass Ceiling I never know Benoit even faced Sting at this point. I really dug it and thought they had good chemistry. One point when Sting was coming back on Benoit and it was some the most vicious stuff Id seen from him outside of the Vader matches. Would like more Savage and Luger in the match, but Sting looked really good. I guess that is what next week is for. I thought Luger delivered one of his better promos but he always sounded like suffered from severe dry mouth so the bar is pretty low for him. Savage was awesome per usual. Then we had Sting the Astrologer, what the fuck, dude. Though I cant believe a Fortune Teller/Astrologer gimmick has not been done in wrestling. It would be a perfect manager gimmick.

[El-P]

I don't think Mongo looked that bad. Yeah, he screwed up some stuff, and at one point Sting kinda refused to go up for a suplex and grabbed the top rope, which led o a badly blown spot, but he also delivered some dynamic athletic big man offense. People forget he was a banged up 40 year old rookie thrown into upper-midcard matches/TV main events right away. Anyway, decent match, nothing special. Savage barely hits the ring.

Speculation that Flair was in the limo. That would have been too much. This week's Nitro was on the lighter side as far as nWo angle went, with nothing much happening apart from Hall & Nash crashing the TV truck.

And yeah, that Benoit/Woman confrontation is uncomfortable as all hell to watch now.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, the back suplex was really the only bad spot with Mongo. His shoulder tackle was great and he even busted out a dropkick that put Renegade and Erik Watts to shame. Sting works pretty much the entire match and it's better for it. Woman prevents Debra from handing Mongo the briefcase, and Savage gets it and uses it on Benoit for the win. That seems to be the payoff to the Elizabeth/Savage money angle. Then we get a bizarre promo from Sting talking about Leos and horoscopes and something or other. Lex offers up some more pointed, fiery comments. Savage threatens to take out Hogan in Sturgis before the title match.

 

I don't remember what Flair was doing this night, but I don't think the Flair/limo storyline went anywhere.

[soup23]

I will give Mongo some credit too, he had a decent gig as announcer and seemingly decided to become a wrestler by taking the tough route. He seemed to really enjoy being in the ring. This match was fine but on the low end side of the Nitro and Raw stuff we have seen lately. This seemed like a calming night for the NWO angle. **1/2

[tim]

Pretty fun match. Mongo is energetic and not bad overall, but man was that backdrop botch an ugly one. Post-match Sting takes a steep, steep fall in promo quality from last week. Yikes.

[dawho5]

I'll agree on the back suplex botch.  Very ugly.  Even so, Mongo really is in way over his head and acquits himself pretty well given the circumstances.  After watching most of 96 so far, Benoit had no glass ceiling at all.  He was given all kinds of opportunities.  That he ended up temporarily on the midcard during the NWO angle is not necessarily a personal thing.  A lot of the WCW midcard got lost in that shuffle. 

For the match overall, perfectly fine extended heat with one of those shmozz endings that need to happen on WCW TV.  Seeing Macho get part of his money back is kida fun too.