[1995-09-18-WCW-Nitro] Harlem Heat vs American Males

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I'm not going to go overboard praising this or anything, but this is a way better match than you would expect it to be. Good heat and intensity, nice brawling at the beginning, and Booker T is starting to show himself as a guy who may be better than he seems. The Males win the tag titles in a surprise finish, considering Harlem Heat just regained them the night before.

[Matt D]

Poor Regal, never getting the Tag Belts in 95 when everyone else did. This was pretty much the moment when it became clear they weren't going to get them.

[Bix]

This was such a surprise at the time that every WCWSN taping report in the Torch had a "The American Males are still tag team champions" note until they lost them back to Heat in a match that had to be retaped for reasons I forget.

[El-P]

The American Males, stupid gimmick aside, was a pretty good tag team. Bagwell by this point knew the deal after years of working tag matches with Scorp and Patriot. And Riggs always was an underrated worker. I remember this being a pretty good match, especially for HH.

[Tim Evans]

This reminds me how great the American Males theme song was. Good match with the Heat looking tough. My favorite thing was the Keystone Cops trying to take away the "We like it Raw" sign during the finish.

[PeteF3]

AMERICAN MALES. AMERICAN MALES. AMERICAN MALES. Between this and Mr. Wonderful truly this was a golden age in WCW theme music. I was more intrigued by Razor vs. Kid than the Males at the time, so I never knew until just now that there was an originally scheduled match with the Bluebloods and an impromptu challenge by Harlem Heat. Shockingly good action--Booker looks *great*, Riggs looks really good, Bagwell pulls his weight, and even Stevie freaking Ray works a few nice brick-wall spots. Shock title change follows--the WCW Tag Titles were soon to slide into irrelevance as Bischoff was never big on tag wrestling, to the company's detriment, but this was a good call that was yet another reminder that Nitro had a blink-or-you'll-miss-it atmosphere that Raw couldn't yet touch.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs American Males - WCW Nitro 9/18/95

This is supposed to be the Males vs Blue Bloods in a midcard tag match but the newly minted Harlem Heat having defeated the Studd Stable the night before beat up the Blue Bloods. I kinda get Harlem Heat’s point they are the new Tag Champions and as new Champs they want air time on the newest, hottest show in wrestling to increase their exposure. I dig the motivation. Putting the titles on the lines because they are arrogant based on the win last night and they think pretty boy Males are chumps makes sense.

This match more exists to continue the thread that anything can happen on Nitro where the newly minted champs get upset the next night by heavy underdogs. I wish today they did more short reigns. This is so refreshing. The match is meh. If it was not for Booker T’s killer Axe Kick and almost decapitating Riggs with most vicious Harlem Sidekick of all time this was not be memorable. Bagwell has a milquetoast hot tag. Sherri and the Colonel do their weird romance that seemingly lasts forever. This distracts Harlem Heat long enough to have Bagwell shift his weight on a slam to get the upset victory! Cool for Booker’s two moves and a necessary shock title change to make you believe anything can happen on Nitro. But still just meh.