[1997-10-13-WCW-Nitro] Curt Hennig vs DDP

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Ric Flair is trying to attack Hennig but is being held back by security. Double standards on security intervention in wrestling KILL me. Flair finally makes it to the ring and chases Hennig out of sight. Flair can run his ass off for a guy nearly 49 years old. It would appear DDP has won the title, as he's able to pin Hennig after a distraction, but the decision is reserved. After a commercial break, Piper and DDP are attacked by the NWO when Piper tries to review the reverse decision since there's a lack of clarity on who the U.S. champ is. The NWO is getting old by this point and blowing it off at Starrcade is obviously what should have happened. Finally, Sting shows up in the crowd but it turns out there are multiple Stings hitting the ring. At least two dozen Stings hit the ring and the NWO fights them all off. But the real one is in the mix and gets in a scorpion deathdrop on Bagwell. The entire NWO bails. Cool angle.

[Kevin Ridge]

Again! Where is security when it comes to NWO? They are doing their best to hold back Flair. They seem to be completely profiling Flair at this point and ignoring everything NWO does. Dude should sue. Looked like a clean pinfall by DDP to me. What the heck was Randy Anderson looking at? Bunch a fake Stings arrive and then get beat up losing their wigs. But that was a cool way the real Sting showed up. Bagwell wasn't so smug after that.

[soup23]

Setup to the end angle felt dumb. No reason for security to be doing everything in their power to prevent Flair from getting in the ring and the whole NWO just comes out after the break to beat up Piper and DDp. I did like DDp getting some kicks in on Hogan and they missed a singles match between those two at perhaps Slamboree.

 

Bischoff comes down gloating and we get a cool angle with Savage hitting the elbow ( with Tony doubting that his neck is still hurt). Stings start emerging and I liked that the real one got in and hit Bagwell before bailing.

 

Starrcade as Hogan vs. Sting. Flair/DDP/Piper/Benoit vs. Nash/Syxx/Savage/Hennig and Larry vs. Hall sounds like a good trio to blow off the entire feud.

[El-P]

Match was pretty good, Hennig has showed up to work again. But both the finish and the angle afterward were terrible to me. First off, why Flair shows up just as DDP's got the upper hand ? Why does the security stops him while they don't do shit when the nWo is around ? And this really looked like a three count to me. So we get a Dusty finish here. And then another repetitive nWo beatdown. Steiners ? Nope. Giant ? Luger ? Nope. But a bunch of fake Sting as cannon fooder. Sorry, but this is lazy, half baked booking, borderline ridiculous booking to me. So okay, the real Sting is the one who doesn't sell and finally we get somewhat of a cool moment. But the nWo stuff on this Nitro has been pretty bad.

[PeteF3]

Just a horrible, horrible finish--we've already touched on the inconsistent security, but Schiavone really comes off as dumb when he's begging for Dillenger to let Flair go. That's a DQ and the NWO keeps their title, Tony. Then the mistiming of the rollup and Randy Anderson breaking character by holding his head in his hands at everyone's fuck-up...just really bad bush-league stuff that WCW is still capable of even at their highest peak. Now Piper's out, glad to see him putting over the big beatdown he got earlier in the show.

 

The Sting clones is an interesting idea but it sort of reeks of Sullivan or Taylor being too clever by half, and the execution on *that* is bad as well as the NWO destroys DDP and Piper forever before the Sting Army even shows up, then it takes the real Sting an eternity to make his presence felt even if his reveal was cool. This segment overall was a complete mess, and Clone Army aside really felt like WCW/NWO by numbers. Schiavone's exasperation with the lack of a WCW save goes beyond just normal babyface announcer indignation to the point where he honestly sounds fed up with what he's calling, though I could be reading too much into that. We're starting to see signs of Tony, who's mostly had a terrific year, slipping into the caricature he'd become in 1999.