[1997-10-13-WCW-Nitro] Roddy Piper and the NWO

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Piper is out for an interview and points out that Larry Zbyszko was officially sanctioned as a referee a week ago for Halloween Havoc, which means the title change stands. I like the logic there. Bischoff and Savage are out to accuse Piper of "felonious assault" and calls Piper an accomplice in the attack on Savage last week. Bischoff wants Hogan's belt back and wants the tag titles back too. They challenge Piper to a fight and this is obviously a setup as the entire NWO (sans Hall and Syxx) enter the ring. Sting is out (obviously a fake) and it was Hogan, who attacks Piper with a bat as Roddy falls prey to a beatdown. Good segment, and Hogan needed some heat on him going into Havoc.

[Kevin Ridge]

Piper actually makes an explanation of how Larry was set up as referee previous week for Hall/Luger match and Steiners title win decision stands. I'll accept that. Piper is ready to fight Bischoff/Savage and you see the fans look to the entrance way for the eventual NWO appearance. Piper is such an idiot as he falls for the fake Sting which is Hogan.

[soup23]

Pipers logic for letting the Larry Z tag title decision stand made a lot of sense. We have Bischoff and Savage out and it ends with a beatdown of Piper with Hogan dressed as Sting. Sting real or fake hasnt came around for a long time. At least with the Sting they showed here on the entrance it was only for a brief second so the announcers could be confused. Good hype for Havoc.

[El-P]

Piper is out for an interview and points out that Larry Zbyszko was officially sanctioned as a referee a week ago for Halloween Havoc, which means the title change stands. I like the logic there.

 

Indeed. And Piper has been surprisingly strong since he came back.

 

However, as far as the beatdown goes, I'm surprised you accept yet another lame "obvious fake Sting" angle. Really lazy booking here. And like Tony said "where in the world are the Steiners ? Where in the world is WCW ?" Piper basically gave the Steiners the tag belts, and they can't show up to defend him ? Really ? So no, not a good segment to me. It's a rehash of bad stuff that looked stupid before.

[PeteF3]

Piper *has* been good in this role. I don't want to see him wrestle, but his interviews have all been decent to downright good. I didn't care as much for the beatdown--Hogan disguised as Sting was kind of clever but that fake Sting shouldn't have fooled anyone, and Schiavone clearly doesn't quite know what he's supposed to be putting over when "Sting" whacks Piper with the bat. And yes, the lack of WCW guys making the save just doesn't make any sense.