And now, the results of the 100th edition of Nitro!
After Buffer did his usual shtick, the Nitro Girls dances, and Hogan and Bischoff talked for a few minutes, we finally got a match! In the opening bout, Hennig beat Mortis with the Hennig-plex. I've seen better starts to Nitro, and I've seen far worse. *1/4
Dean Malenko and Jeff Jarrett were able to beat up Hector and Chavo Guerrero after Hector submitted to the Texas Cloverleaf. It was apparent that Dean isn't amused by Jarrett's antics. 3/4*
We got another Stevie Richards/Raven confrontation. Stevie Richards I believe was wearing a Nitro Girl's dancing attire during this bit.
Giant defeated Lenny Lane, Scott DeMar, and "Jumpin'" Joey Maggs by pinning all three at once after a chokeslam to each. SQUASH
Public Enemy defeated High Voltage with Grunge rolling up Rage for the win. During the match, Rock went through a table, and after the match part of the table was used to attack Grunge. 1/2*
Alex Wright successfully defended the belt against Scotty Riggs. In a funny spot, Wright came out doing the dancing shtick with the Nitro Girls. Wright won with a missile dropkick *1/4
Lex Luger was interviewed and promised to put Hogan up in the rack to win the belt. Good for him.
Benoit defeated Syxx by DQ after Jarrett interfered. Mongo and Malenko both ran out after the match, but Mongo and Benoit were the ones standing in the ring. *1/2
Booker T defeated Vincent in a squash after the scissors kick. SQUASH
DDP cut a promo on Flair, since those two had a match later on. Decent promo.
Wrath defeated Barbarian with the Death Penalty. Postmatch, Meng showed up and he and Wrath had a staredown. DUD
The Steiners came out, and with them was Ted DiBiase! DiBiase says he'll help the Steiners win the World Wrestling.. Er, WCW Tag Titles. Decent buildup to Road Wild, I guess.
Konnan defeated Psicosis with the Tequila Sunrise. After the match, Mysterio came out (still on crutches) but he didn't need them and beat up Konnan. 3/4*
Miller and Glacier defeated Damien and Silver King in a pretty meh match. 1/4*
Bischoff and Dillon had a confrontation, and Bischoff told Dillon to tell Zbyszko that if he ever put his hands on Bischoff, Bischoff would kick Larry between the eyes. Good for him.
DDP and Flair had the MotN as they fought to a DQ when Hennig ran out and attacked Page. Page was able to clean house of both men though. **1/2
Los Villano defeated Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr after pulling some switch around. 3/4*
Dillon came out to give a contract to Sting. The contract was for a match against Curt Hennig. Sting's response? He tore it up.
Luger defeated Hogan with the Torture Rack to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. WCW celebrated with Luger as they got rid of the nWo marking as Hogan freaked out about losing. I'm sure this freak out won't cause him to win the belt in like.. five days from then. Would it? 1/2*
They say hindsight in 20/20, and while we all know that Nitro going three hours wasn't the best decision they came up with, TV Ratings for this Nitro was something never seen before. What was it? 4.4. To put it simply, this was not only the highest rating Nitro ever pulled against Raw, it was the HIGHEST rating Nitro ever had up to that point.
This wasn't just a one time occurrence either. For the rest of 1997, Nitro's ratings would constantly hit in the high 3's or low 4's except for one time. Starting with this Nitro, the rating wars were hitting unknown territory, with no ceiling in sight.
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Hell, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know..
My WCW watchfest topic Part II: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/59893341