WCW Saturday Night 11/11/1995

Written by: Tom Hopkins

We start with footage of Jimmy Hart on Nitro talking about Giant being the WCW champion since the contract he signed said that should Hogan be disqualified; he would lose the title. Tony and Dusty are calling the action tonight. Dusty calls Jimmy a snake and tells us that Hogan has been stripped of the title. We go right back to footage of that November 6th Nitro with a WCW official saying the contract was valid. However, he says that the Giant is not the champion. Nick Bockwinkel has stated that Championship Committee has been held up and will be awarded to the winner of World War III.

–Disco Inferno vs. Chris Kanyon–
Disco gets a huge reaction here despite being a heel. Soon the fans are chanting that Disco Sucks. That’s a weird crowd – they cheer for him and dance when he comes out and then boo him. Kanyon corners Disco and Disco complains about his hair being messed up. Was there anything he could’ve done to become more of a Saturday Night Fever clone? Dusty rambles on and it sounded like he mentioned Honky Tonk Man. The commentary cuts out for a little bit and I wonder if it was because they were talking about someone they shouldn’t have been or if it was always that way. Disco grabs a sleeper which Kanyon reverses into a side slam. Disco comes back with a back suplex and a standing suplex. Kanyon comes back with a Northern Lights suplex for two. He misses a crossbody and Disco celebrates by dancing. He walks backwards, trips over Kanyon and Kanyon schoolboys him for the pinfall at 6:11. That was a surprise upset. Glad to see the Stanner High alum pick up the win. Disco had nothing going on with his offense since he was just standing around dancing most of the time but it was an inoffensive opener. *1/4.

Sting wrestled Flair on the most recent Nitro and had him in the Scorpion Deathlock. Flair submitted but Sting refused to let go. Luger, the man who turned on Hogan, tells Sting something and that is what gets him to release the hold. What did he say?

–Eddie Guerrero vs. Loverboy Bobby Star–
LATINO HEAT!!! I don’t know Bobby can honestly use the moniker of Loverboy while Mr. Latino Heat himself is in the opposite corner. Eddie hits a nice powerbomb about a minute in before delivering a slingshot senton off the apron. He connects with a missile dropkick and a delivers a brainbuster. The Frog Splash ends this at 3:14. Schiavone called that a jack-knife slam which is one of the most interesting names I’ve heard for it. This was just an Eddie squash spot-fest match.

Sting talks about why he snapped. He calls Flair’s action inhuman and he wasn’t going to let of the Scorpion Deathlock. Sting talks about Luger and what Lex said to him. Sting won’t discuss what he said. Sting says that if he hooks on the Scorpion Deathlock again, he won’t let go. Sting wants the World Title belt and will go through Hogan to do it.

–Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Ron Thompson–
Pittman rolls through a bodyslam with a roll-up for two. That was a cool-looking move. Pittman suplexes Thompson a few times and hooks him in an interesting combination of the Texas Cloverleaf and a Boston Crab. Pittman tosses Thompson around and shows some good intensity. His problem is he has no transition moves. He’s just going through suplexes and submissions with no rhyme or reason and he should at least throw some punches or something. Pittman finishes with an arm-bar submission move. This really had no bite to the match.

We visit with Hacksaw Jim Duggan in Ireland as he traces his Irish roots. This was all in preparation for his taped fist match against Big Bubba at World War III. He finds himself at an Irish Pub speaking to a professor. Now, did he really go to Ireland or was he just in Florida with some Irish dude. There’re pictures of his grandparents (both taped fist champions) and it is obviously just pictures of Duggan dressed up. This was just a mind-blowingly bad segment.

–Big Bubba Rogers vs. Steve Armstrong–
Bubba knees Armstrong to start. Bubba misses an avalanche in the corner and bails when Armstrong hits a dropkick. Bubba comes back in and they do nothing of note. Armstrong manages a sunset flip out of the corner for two. Armstrong hits a splash off the top rope for two. Bubba gets a Boss Man Slam out of nowhere to end this at 4:28. Bubba tapes up his fist after the match and knocks out Armstrong. This was a nothing match.

Hey, it’s more crap from the Dungeons of Doom! Taskmaster, the Giant and the Yeti and that old screaming dude all in one shot!

–The American Males vs. The Barrio Brothers–
Wow, look at the social implications in this match pitting the Americans against a team from the American Territories. The fans immediately start a USA chant not realizing that the Barrio brothers from Puerto Rico are actually Americans themselves. Riggs starts against Luigi Barrio but soon all four are in the ring and the Barrios are drop-kicked to the outside. Again we have USA chants. It doesn’t make sense, folks! Riggs has his leg taken out after some really uneventful “wrestling” and now the Barrios can control and work over Riggs leg. Riggs does make the hot tag to Bagwell who is immediately tossed to the outside. Bagwell is sent into the ringpost outside but Bagwell recovers in enough time to hit a crossbody from the top to end this at 6:26. Another nothing match. It worked the tag formula to a degree but the American Males just sucked so badly to really make this any good. *.

Are you ready for more Disco? It’s Disco Inferno’s music video! It was only about a minute long, which is about 3 minutes shorter than it should be!

We recap Sonny Onoo buying one-half of WCW Pro and we see footage of one of the New Japan matches that aired that Saturday morning.

–Dean Malenko vs. Todd Morton–
Dean Malenko is awesome, as usual. Morton blows a move but Dean is still able to turn it into a backbreaker. He dropkicks Morton’s leg and Dean-o Machino goes to work. He hangs him up in a Tree of Woe and then dropkicks the leg. That was awesome. Dean tries a figure-four but Morton kicks him off into the corner and rolls him up for two. Malenko won’t stand for this jobber doing anything and just kicks him right in the face to regain control. Malenko powerbombs Morton and covers for two. Dean eventually locks in a leg-submission (like a single-leg bar) and this one is over at 4:44. This was just a total destruction.

We hear from the man himself, Hulk Hogan but not before watching Halloween Havoc footage again (including the YETI!). Hogan is in a very Dungeon of Doom-ish type environment and both he and Macho Man are wearing masks. Hogan gives Savage an “Eye of the Tiger.” Was that an intentional nod to his original intro music?

–The Bottom Line–
This is the second bad episode of Saturday Night in a row. There were no interesting star vs. star match-ups and the opening match (clocking in at a whopping *1/4) was the match of the night. Disco Inferno won MOTN? That’s how you know you have a bad episode. None of the other matches held my interest for more than a few seconds. Plus there were a lot fewer matches than last time as more and more promo’s, vignettes and other videos were shown instead. Strong Recommendation to Avoid.