[1997-02-17-WCW-Nitro] Randy Anderson vs Nick Patrick / Hulk Hogan T-Shirt Commercial

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

It's obviously an angle more than it is a match, but it remains one of my favorites. Nick Patrick is absolutely tremendous and Randy Anderson is getting a name chant! Referee Jimmy Jet secretly hands brass knucks to Randy Anderson and he KOs Patrick for the win. Bischoff is not having this and comes out immediately. He fires Jimmy Jet for helping Randy Anderson, and tells Randy Anderson no way is he reinstated after pulling that. I love this segment so much I can't even tell you.

 

Then we get a commercial for the Hollywood Rules t-shirt. Oh, 1990s, you and your airbrushing.

[soup23]

In a lesser year, I might be tempted to put this at #100 on my best matches list. This is wonderful from Tenay running down Andersons amateur background, to Anderson getting pyro. The actual match is very Memphis but looks really clever and fresh in this setting as Jimmy Jett hands the knucks to Patrick and Patrick takes a great bump getting laid out with them. Bischoff is irate and has a legitimate case. I especially liked him talking about how Anderson was an official and should no better not to cheat. He ends up firing Jimmy Jett and Anderson does not have his job back. Perfect way to set up hour two of Nitro.

[Tim Cooke]

Tremendous. Bischoff, Patrick, and Randy Anderson have done a great job in the angles they are in, from the mic work to the wrestling. With the WWF TV angles, 1997 could easily be the best year of the 1990's for consistent, quality TV.

[stomperspc]

I loved this. Nick Patrick is tremendous and really was pretty great as a heel the entire time. This is such a good angle and it gets a fantastic reaction. Was Jimmy Jett gone from WCW by this point? For some reason I am thinking he hadn't been around for a few months before this but since they knew that Bischoff had to "fire" the referee that aided Anderson they brought him back for just this angle. He is wearing a different color shirt than all of the other WCW refs are wearing in early 1997.

 

It is sort of disheartening seeing how great of a job they did getting heat on Bischoff (and the NWO) with stuff like this only for Bischoff to not get his in the ring for a long time (if at all).

[Kevin Ridge]

I can't find if there is a thread but we see Vincent laid out in the parking lot with the NWO looking around. Tenay talks about how someone has sent a message on taking out Vincent. Okay.

 

Tenay puts over the creditials of Randy Anderson. The Anderson chant by the crowd is nice. Anderson has a loaded object in his fist and immediately knocks out Nick Patrick. That was so much fun. Miles better than Hebner/Patrick. Randy wasn't quick enough to hide the object though as Bischoff storms down to the ring to dispute the finish. They could have made Anderson a top face if he had knocked out Bischoff too.

[BackToBionic]

So did Anderson completely leave wrestling at this time or did they just put him in a behind the scenes role?

[El-P]

I guess Anderson worked backstage for a while as he was brought back as a referee by Ric Flair during the first Nitro of 1999.

 

I dunno, it was a fun little segment, but it didn't struck me as *great*. Maybe because it felt to much like comedy after the seriously heated segment of the previous week.

[PeteF3]

I somehow have no memory of this, but this was a lot of fun. I was secretly hoping for some actual wrestling spots before the KO, but it was a clever angle nonetheless. Patrick's pre-match promo is spectacular. Bischoff pulls a Dangerously and spells out that both men are fired.

[BruiserBrody]

This was a lot of fun. Kind of wish Nick Patrick had bulked up and stayed a worker in the 80's.

[raul]

i fucking love that randy got pyro for his entrance.

[...TG]

It's striking how much nWo-era Nick Patrick looks like Danny McBride as Kenny Powers. McBride grew up in Georgia and North Carolina and is roughly the same age as many of us (41), I wonder if he's a fan?

[KB8]

It's a shame that this doesn't seem to have a payoff, because the pop for Randy Anderson punching Bischoff in the mouth would've been wild. This was an awesome segment from start to finish. Randy getting pyro for his entrance, Patrick acting like a complete goober, Bischoff being a terrible human being afterwards, etc.