Airdate: September 18th 1995
Arena/Location: Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee
Commentators: Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, Pepe, Eric Bischoff, and Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan
We kick off Nitro with the commentators sending it back to Mean Gene, who's standing in front of an ambulance, which has Kevin Sullivan and The Giant (Big Show) coming out of it. The Giant proclaims himself the only immortal. There can be only one.
Match One: American Males (Scotty Riggs & Marcus Bagwell) vs. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal & Earl Bobby Eaton)
Before the match starts, Harlem Heat attacks The Blue Bloods as they are coming out.
Booker T gets on the mic and states that, since Harlem Heat are tag team champs, they're deserve a match on Monday Nitro. So, they are going to put the titles on the line against the American Males!
Match One: American Males vs. Harlem Heat(c) w/ Sister Sherri for the WCW World Tag Team Champions
The American Males have suspenders on. Big fans of Larry King, I see. There's also a sign in the crowd that says 'We want it RAW'
During the match, Col. Rob Parker comes to ringside. He was apparently dating Sister Sherri, and they leave together. This distracts Harlem Heat long enough for Marcus Bagwell to get the pin!
Winner by pinfall, and NEW WCW World Tag Team Champions: American Males
Bischoff wonders if it is indeed a legit title switch since Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel wasn't there to sanction it. Still, American Males celebrate with the titles.
Decent tag team match to start off Nitro. Harlem Heat were always a good team. **
Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair in the ring. Flair is going against Brian Pillman, who turned heel the night previous by helping out Arn Anderson in his match against Flair. Flair hypes up his match against Pillman.
Match Two: 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff vs. Johnny B. Badd.
First thing out of Mongo's mouth when the match starts? "People, get out of that refrigerator! This is bigger than rooster season at the hen house." I swear this dude had an unnatural obsession with farms, which Heenan points out.
Johnny B. Badd dominates this matchup from the beginning, but loses to a rollup.
Winner by Pinfall: Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
Not a good match. Orndorff was very limited to what he could do due to the injuries to his body. I think Badd should've won though. Orndorff retired less than three months after this. *3/4
Mean Gene to interview Savage. Savage talks about Hogan, and mentions Hogan is watching Nitro on his 'videoscope.' Then talks about Hogan's choice to pick Luger for WarGames, and that the DoD may have three new members soon: Luger, Sting, and Hart. This brings out Luger. Luger and Savage have a big confrontation, but Mean Gene is able to keep them from going to blows.
We then get see what the Giant did to Hogan at the PPV. He apparently 'broke' Hogan's neck.
Main Event: Flyin' Brian Pillman vs. Ric Flair
Competitive match here that Flair wins with a Figure Four leglock.
Good match that only went about seven minutes. Definitely match of the night **3/4
Post-match, Flair is calling out Arn Anderson. He doesn't come out, so Flair promises to kick his ass next week on Nitro.
Next week on Nitro: Disco Inferno vs. Alex Wright, Savage vs. Taskmaster, and Luger vs. Meng. Also, Heenan states something was going on in the back.. but we never get to see what it was. Weird.
The matches were okay, but there were a few odd angles, which I'll explain in the next post, but overall I'll give this a 5.5/10
The ratings for this episode: 2.4, which was a drop from the debut (2.9), and the week prior (2.5). Obviously, not many people cared about the PPV.
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"Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." Dr. Emmett 'Doc' Brown