Tag Archives: raw vs. nitro

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 7 – 10/16/95

Week 7

Posted Image

RAW: 10/16/95
Grand Rapids, MI

I’m just going to point out that this is Week 4 of the tapings at Grand Rapids. This is also the go home show for the In Your House PPV.

Isaac Yankem, Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart all cut promos with dental puns about tonight’s Steel Cage match.

We now have the “new” RAW theme. Unfortunately it’s bland and it sucks.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Doink the Clown

I had no idea Doink made it this long into 1995.

Apparently Mabel was fined $7,500 for what he did to The Undertaker last week. Gorilla Monsoon is announcing a replacement for Undertaker at In Your House later tonight.

Doink grabbing HHH’s nose is a bit funny.

Doink somehow makes himself dizzy and HHH takes him down.

HHH pins Doink. Pedigree wins. Match was decent I suppose, but not exactly the hot opener to keep people from switching to Nitro.

Barry Horowitz tries to teach Hakushi American concepts like baseball. What a waste of Hakushi.

Monsoon selects Yokozuna to face Mabel. Oh boy.

WWF Tag Team Championship
The Smokin’ Gunns© vs. PG-13

I don’t know if PG-13 was supposed to be taken seriously, but JC Ice pretty much makes an ass out of himself here.

Lawler actually adds some psychology into this match, saying PG-13 are purposely acting stupid to take advantage of the Gunns being overconfident…and then that’s what happens!

Billy Gunn pins Wolfie D to retain the titles. PG-13 got some offense in, but ultimately this was a squash. You know considering the Tag Team Division consisted of the Gunns, the Godwinns, The New Rockers and the Bodydonnas for the next year PG-13 getting a shot might have been a good idea. Ah well.

Bertha Faye vs. Alundra Blayze next week for the Women’s title.

Random British Bulldog interview that happened at a house show. The Bulldog doesn’t feel respected. And he’s gonna beat Diesel for the title.

Ahmed Johnson interview. He takes about how his mom made minimum wage to let him go to school and such. Hard to understand.

Dean Douglas vs. Joe Morgan

We’re still doing the jobber thing eh? Clearly Vince didn’t have anything left on this taping.

Notably, the Shawn Michaels getting beat up by 10 men in Syracuse deal took place the weekend before this RAW. Surprisingly Lawler says it was because HBK mouthed off at a nightclub (closer to the truth). HBK guarantees he’ll be at In Your House…although we all know how that went.

Dean Douglas wins by pin. Fisherman’s Suplex wins it.

Vince and Lawler run down the upcoming In Your House card.

Goldust promo on Marty Jannetty. It’s short, yet somehow a lot better than the Ahmed one we got earlier.

Now a Paul Bearer promo. He’s worried Taker will never look the same again and never be the same again, but he’s coming back soon and he’s going to crush Mabel and Yokozuna’s soul.

Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem

There’s also a smaller cage at ringside that Jerry Lawler must enter if he interferes in the match.

Yankem takes some big bumps off the top rope when tryng to climb the cage. This has been pretty slow, but at least Yankem’s trying.

Apparently Lawler switched the locks on the cage door, and when Bret tries to escape the ref can’t unlock the door.

Bret locks Yankem in the Sharpshoter then tries to climb out, but Lawler knocks him back in. Lawler gets locked in the small cage as a result. The cage also rises and Lawler’s apparently afraid of heights.

Bret Hart seems to be going at half speed here. A few times now he’s fallen and messed up straddling himself on the top rope.

Lawler gets a nosebleed and starts crying. He’s stealing the show here.

Bret Hart wins in 19:50. Bret gets a bulldog and a top rope forearm before escaping. This went way too long and was pretty boring. Yankem tried for sure, but he just wasn’t any good yet. Bret seemed to be going at half speed. And there’s a reason for that.

So apparently this show was just a leftover of whatever unused bits that was filmed for the tapings. Despite this being the go home show for the PPV we got a pretty horrible show. HHH vs. Doink? Dean Douglas vs. a jobber? It was written that Bret vs. DDS wasn’t even going to air on RAW, but it had to after the WWF realized it needed to fill the 4th taping.

Last week the WWF gave us a really hot match and post-match beatdown that at least helped sell the PPV. But this week? Nothing. At least for Bret he would be reinserted into the title picture after finishing off Yankem here.

The WWF had given us some solid shows since this Monday Night War began, but this was easily the worst one so far. And to no one’s surprise no one bought the PPV either.

The rating held though, so at least the WWF had that going for them.

TV Rating: 2.6 (0.0)
Grade: C

Posted Image

Nitro: 10/16/95
Albany, GA

WCW clearly wins the opening video package war now.

Bobby Heenan makes fun of Steve McMichael’s dog and even that’s funny. The Brian is truly a genius.

On WCW Pro Sting agreed to be Ric Flair’s partner for Nitro and Halloween Havoc. Sting warns Flair that if he crosses him Flair is dead.

Heenan really hypes up Sting teaming with Flair, telling us that it hasn’t happened since 1990.

Television Championship
Diamond Dallas Page© vs. Johnny B. Badd

Page beats Badd down with the title belt and gets DQed. No match here. Page is hilarious though, pinning Badd and then using the Badd Blaster when he counts his own three.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero

This is Benoit’s WCW debut (after he appeared last week).

Great headscissors sequence from Benoit. Fast paced action so far.

Eddy goes flying and takes out Benoit on the floor!

Guerrero sends Benoit into the post…then Guerrero runs and slams into the post himself. That looked so real…

Springboard Tornado DDT from Guerrero!

Crazy hurricanrana sequence from Guerrero! Great stuff here all around.

Benoit with a stiff as hell powerbomb! Wow! Fans gasped after that one.

Chris Benoit pins Eddy Guerrero in 8:45. Dragon suplex wins it. Awesome match that not only show cased Benoit, but also made Guerrero look great too. Great action.

Apparently WCW is creating a Cruiserweight Division. That would be awesome for the next couple of years for sure.

Mean Gene tries to sell the hotline. Someone from the WWF was fired! It was Bill Watts. He also teases information about a wrestler getting beat up by a fan. He’s referring to HBK there.

Taskmaster and The Giant are on their way down.

Promo is all about Sullivan being evil and Hogan having an evil side too. Sullivan has to say the word evil about 20 times. It’s still hard to take the whole Monster Truck deal seriously.

Disco Inferno is out dancing again.

Meng vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Duggan falls down for no reason to move out of the way of an elbow drop.

Meng wins in 2:00. The spike makes Duggan give up. Only two minutes, but it was pretty bad anyway. Just a win to give Meng as he prepares to face Lex Luger in a couple weeks at Halloween Havoc.

A black clad Hulk Hogan cuts a promo on the Giant and how he’s evil too. He mentions too that Hulkamania makes promotors cry because it’s bigger than the whole promotion. Another shot at Vince I guess? He actually says he’s going to bury the Giant next toAndre as well. Ugh.

Sting and Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson and Flyin’ Brian

Sting doesn’t come out and Flair goes at it alone.

Flair does pretty well nonetheless as he chops everything that moves.

Pillman and Anderson finally get the upperhand…and here comes Sting!

Sting gets tagged in and goes crazy on Pillman and Anderson. Crowd is going wild for the Stinger too.

Sting and Flair win by countout. Sting tosses Anderson and he doesn’t make it back. Of course, this was a really good set up for Halloween Havoc which I won’t spoil here. Really fun main event even if it had a bad finish. Sting looked like the biggest star in the business here. Sting tells Flair he has a lot of guts fighting his former brother in Anderson and Flair calls Sting the best. Man this angle is awesome.

It had some dull spots, but this was a really fun show just for the main event and Benoit vs. Guerrero.

TV Rating: 2.2 (-0.4)
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

It’s easy this week. RAW was a poor show at a bad time. Jobber matches and poorly taped shows aren’t going to cut it in the Monday Night War era. Nitro gave us a hot Benoit vs. Guerrero match and a fun main event with Sting and Flair teaming up. It’s a testament to how deep WCW’s roster was here that we got a great show despite no Randy Savage or Lex Luger.

The ratings told a different story as RAW won the week. I assume this was because we did get a really good show last week and people cared about Bret Hart. Curious to see what we get next week rating wise from RAW. WCW still needs time to establish their brand, and it’s not like they’re getting killed on the ratings front or anything. But show quality wise, WCW won the week easily.

TV Ratings Score: 3-1-2 RAW

Grade Score: 2-2-2

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 2 (9/11/95)

Week 2

Posted Image

Nitro: 9/11/95
Miami, FL

We’ve got a big name World Title match tonight, Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger!

I think it’s awesome that Bischoff put Luger in a Nitro main event immediately. Luger was all over WWF TV just two weeks prior.

This is the go home PPV for Fall Brawl ’95.

Mongo looks ridiculous with glasses.

Bischoff says that Vader has gown AWOL. I think Vader was just fired. Anyway, he’s out of the War Games match.

Sabu vs. Alex Wright

We’re not in ECW are we anymore Sabu?

Sabu takes Wright over the top with a frankensteiner.

Sabu uses a chair as a springboard…but Wright moves and Sabu leg lariats the railing!

Awesome backflip off the top from Wright…which transitions into a German Suplex.

Sabu gets the three on Alex Wright after a top rope victory roll…but Sabu continues the attack and drives Wright through a table!

Alex Wright wins by DQ in 3:58. Ref reverses the decision. Pretty fun 4 minute match with nice spots. Good showing off of Sabu and Wright.

Here comes Ric Flair!

Flair compares himself to Joe Montana and Arn Anderson to Lawrence Taylor. Uh…

Lex Luger comes out to tell Flair “he’s too much” and leaves. Ok?

What an odd segment that was. I mean the interview was fine…but the Luger cameo was what?

Sting vs. VK Wallstreet

Wallstreet is an absolute Million Dollar Man ripoff here.

Bischoff says that “Shawn Michaels beat the big guy with a superkick!” I’m sure Vince McMahon had a heart attack right there. HBK vs. Sid was the main event on RAW…which was taped on August 28th, 1995.

Bischoff says of Wallstreet: “It’s all about power, it’s all about money, and that’s why he’s in WCW”. You think Hogan said that about his contract negotiation?

A very heavy anti-WWF segment here. Bischoff points out Luger was wrestling for the WWF nine days ago but left because he wanted competition. Ouch.

Sting pins Wallstreet in 4:13. Crossbody off the top for the win. Too short for my tastes, but it was fine and the crowd was into it.

Bischoff makes sure that we watch Saturday Night for the debut of Disco Inferno!

Scott Norton vs. Randy Savage

Norton was treated as a big deal early on. No one remembers his debut on the first Nitro…and by this time next year he’d be wrestling Ice Train.

Savage is selling like a million bucks for Norton at least.

Randy Savage pins Scott Norton in 5:39. The Dungeon of Doom hit the ring, and Norton and The Shark bump heads and Shark falls on Norton’s legs. This let’s Savage drop the big elbow for the win. Pretty weird finish. Dungeon of Doom attack Savage as a precursor to War Games. Weird to build up Norton to have him lose right away though.

WCW World Championship: Hulk Hogan© vs. Lex Luger

Hogan does put Luger over like a million bucks here. Well, right until he survives the Torture Rack.

We get the Hulk Up as well. Crowd kinda died during it.

Hulk Hogan wins by DQ in 5:28. Dungeon of Doom ruins this one too. Hogan of course legdropped Luger…so much for putting him over.

Sting and Savage run in, but the DOD don’t attack Luger! Now Hogan doesn’t trust him. This would set up the untruthworthy Luger deal. Sting defends him. How didn’t this lead to the Megapowers vs. Sting and Luger?

Luger will be Vader’s replacement this Sunday! Well, at least that’s what Sting wants. Savage is against him. Hogan, the deciding vote, says yes. Savage is brilliant here.

A solid outing for Nitro again, but I thought some things missed this time around. I liked Sabu vs. Wright…but the reverse decision blows. I don’t think anyone thought Wallstreet was beating Sting…and the announcers decided to use that time to talk about the WWF anyway. Flair’s interview was there. Scott Norton was put over in losing, but he wasn’t really the right guy to draw anyway. Hogan vs. Luger…booked as a dream match and all, went a mere 5 minutes. I feel like they could have cut Sting vs. Wallstreet here. It may have been the best quality match involving a big name, but also the least important.

That being said…we still got a show full of nonstop action, and Hogan put on his working boots for Luger for 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Savage did too. It’s also a good sign that the Nitro rating barely moved…even though it was up against RAW this week.

For the record I am all for Bischoff giving away the RAW results.

TV Rating: 2.4 (-0.1)
Grade: B+

Posted Image

RAW: 9/11/95
Canton, Ohio

Now that Vince saw what the competition was offering it was time to outshine them and own Monday Nights.

Oh wait…the show is taped.

Yes, taped back in August. Next week’s show is as well. Fun fact that Lex Luger was in a the dark match for this show.

The WWF is coming off a pretty awful Summerslam (a one match care if there ever was one, although The Kid vs. Hakushi was fine too). Now they’ve lost one of their main players, how will Vince respond? Despite a pretty good talent roster, somehow this meant more pushing for Mabel. No idea why.

The main event here is a match that was originally scheduled for Summerslam: HBK vs. Sid for the IC Title. Watching Nitro first though…Bischoff told us how that would turn out.

We have The Bulldog vs. Razor too. Two pretty big matches!

No idea why the WWF went to this terrible intro in 1995…especially when the classic RAW theme outright owned.

Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog

The Bulldog just turned heel on Diesel. Ramon just lost the IC title Ladder Match…and also had problems with Dean Douglas.

The Bulldog cutting his hair short was a great look for him.

This has been a solid back and forth contest so far. Good heat for Davey Boy.

Accidental ref bump…leads to Douglas attacking Ramon after Ramon had hit the Razor’s Edge.

Kid makes the save…and takes an awesome bump off the apron!

British Bulldog wins by DQ in 7:10. Kid comes off the top, but misses the Bulldog and hits Razor. Shouldn’t Razor win by DQ? Anyway, pretty good opening segment.

Vince interviews Kid and Razor, and it turns into an argument with Kid and Ramon when Vince says Kid cost Razor the match. Kid says last week (during tennis?) Razor cost him the match. He challenges Razor to a match for next week! He makes sure to point out he beat Razor the first time. Ramon accepts.

Weird poem from Todd Pettengill. Anyway, Yokozuna and Owen vs. Mabel and Mo next week I guess?

The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Rad Radford and The Brooklyn Brawler

No idea who’s winning this one.

Smokin’ Gunns win when Bart Gunn pins The Brawler in 2:46. It was an action packed 3 minutes at least. Did the Gunns ever name that sidewalk slam flying legdrop combo?

Goldust promo. No idea what he’s talking about…but who cares. It owns. References The Undertaker here, interestingly enough. The Goldust character is brilliant.

I like that they use the helicopter stock footage that would appear in The Rock’s 2003 heel titantron.

D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em vs. Scott Taylor

Two Attitude wrestlers here!

Awful chokeslam there. Funny what a long way that move has come for the future Kane.

Yank’em pins Taylor in 2:14. He wins with the DDS…which yes…is a DDT. How many people switched to Savage vs. Norton here?

In Your House hype. All the matches set already it looks like. It doesn’t look too bad!

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Sycho Sid

No one knows how to get a solid match out of Sid like Shawn does.

Shawn makes Sid look amazing here.

Awesome nip up from Sid, which led to a chokeslam.

Shawn Michaels pins Sid in 7:21. Three superkicks…one of them a real superkick, gets Shawn the win. Shawn bumps everywhere for Sid, and it leads to a very good match…even if it’s a bit short.

In retrospect, it’s odd that Vince allowed Shawn to do a striptease in the middle of the ring.

One last backstage interview with Diesel and HBK before we call it a night.

The show had a very good beginning and end, but it’s hard to care about any of that stuff in the middle. Thanks to Nitro, RAW squash matches would begin to be phased out. Unless you thought people were sticking around for The Brooklyn Brawler and Scott Taylor.

That along hurts the show enough. The 5 minute In Your House commercial is bothersome too. Nothing is built up (on RAW at least) yet a whole card is set already? Should I be watching Superstars instead?

Again…the opener and main were good.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B

Weekly Review

Watching Nitro made me feel like WCW had so much talent they had to get in on the show. Watching RAW made me wonder why the WWF didn’t use all their top guys. Now that Nitro set that standard, RAW would have to catch up.

Even though Shawn vs. Sid was the better match in terms quality, Hogan vs. Luger was a huge deal with the WCW World Title on the line and everything. Nitro had an action packed show from top to bottom. RAW had a good start and good ending with stuff no one cared about in the middle.

Plus, Bischoff told you what would happen anyway…

Great start for Nitro ratings wise. First week of competition and they lose by merely 0.1. Not bad at all.

TV Ratings Score: 1-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-0 Nitro

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 1 (9/4/95)

Reviewed 9/3/14

September 1995 Background

The latest…and biggest shot has been fired.

The WWF had been the major player in wrestling for a solid decade at this point. The NWA and WCW were always a distant second place until about 1994. Before then it was the WWF’s big gimmicky promotions against the top tier wrestling of WCW (note, each would have a little of the opposite in them). In 1994 though the tides had changed in a big way. The WWF had moved to becoming a more athletic wrestling show led by Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. WCW signed Hulk Hogan to an insane deal and suddenly looked gimmicky all around (and a lot like the old WWF). WCW would continue to sign away big talent from the WWF through 1994 and 1995, with men such as Hogan, Randy Savage and others all jumping ship.

And for some reason, Vince gave up on the athletic type and went back to the superman big man. 1995 this didn’t work. ”Big Daddy Cool” Diesel turned out to be the worst drawing WWF Champion of all time (not all his fault to be fair). WCW also kept the pressure on, running 10 PPV events in 1995 and forcing Vince to run an “In Your House” event each month. Reviews on the IYH events ranged from mixed to poor. 1995 was just a bad year for the WWF. Bad booking, competition on the way, and stars leaving to WCW.

WCW meanwhile hit some big peaks in 1994 when Hogan showed up. Hogan’s popularity did plateau rather quickly though. But with bigger star power overall (Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan vs. Michaels, Bret, Diesel) Ted Turner famously asked Eric Bischoff “Hey Eric, what would it take to compete with WWF?” Bischoff joking said Monday Night primetime. And Turner gave it to him. The Monday Night War had begun.

For September, we would see that WCW smartly began on a date that the WWF would be pre-empted. WCW would hit upon some big moments right away and immediately change how each show would be booked.

Note, the show that has the best review the week prior will go first in the post, as insignificant as that actually is.

Week 1

Posted Image

Nitro: 9/4/95
Minneapolis, MN

It should be pointed out that Nitro debuted at a time where RAW was pre-empted for two weeks. Pretty smart right off the bat.

Nitro intro video is pretty cool even today. Theme is great too.

Very odd that Nitro is coming live from the Mall of America.

Nitro already puts something on that was pretty unique and cool, which is the opening match.

Steve McMichael calls Bobby Heenan “Bobby the Stain” for the whole show. Ugh.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Flyin’ Brian

Cool cartwheel kick to start. Bischoff on commentary is really pumping Nitro up as something never seen before in big league wrestling.

Pretty bad timing as Jushin Liger climbs up to the top rope and Pillman just stands there and takes the moonsault.

Wooo, surfboard!

Decent high flying stuff from Liger, including a somersault off the apron. Maybe it hasn’t aged great, but it was pretty cool stuff for its time, even if the 1-2-3 Kid was doing just as good stuff.

Pillman gets a perfect dropkick on Liger coming from the top.

Top rope hurricanrana from Liger!

Tornado DDT from Pillman! Maybe it’s just a bunch of spots, but it’s a fun match.

Brian Pillman pins Jushin Liger. Pillman gets a victory roll from the win. A fun little 6 minute match that wouldn’t be great if it was on PPV, but just fine for a TV show. Bischoff went right ahead in trying to get a good start for Nitro with something unique and he succeeded.

Sting promo. He’s gonna lock Flair in the Scorpion!

Hulk Hogan is promoting PASTAMANIA in the Mall of America! He hypes up the WCW Title match later in the show. PASTAMANIA is gonna run wild on Big Bubba brother!

WCW United States Championship
Sting© vs. Ric Flair

I’d almost be upset this wasn’t main eventing, but it makes sense as Hogan is Hogan.

One of the most historic moments in the entire war happens in the first show as Lex Luger walks down the aisle. Luger had just appeared at WWF Summerslam eight nights prior. No one in the WWF locker room knew it was happening. Want to complain about WWF no-competes these days, it was moments like this that caused them. This was absolutely brilliant from Bischoff.

Of course, Sting and Flair give him a look, since that’s who had history with Luger when he left in 1992. Another great thing about this moment is the less is more approach. All Luger did was just walk down the aisle. That was it. Big Luger chants too.

We get some typical Sting-Flair stuff, which is always great. Of course, it’s the shortened version, but that’s okay.

WCW’s star power was pretty much on display here. While the WWF did have big matches on RAW before this, you never really saw two top guys go at it (say, Bret vs. Shawn on RAW). Here, WCW could afford to do Sting vs. Flair since the roster was deep.

Arn Anderson is down here. This was a time that Anderson and Flair were not getting along.

I like how a great wrestler like Ric Flair had a finish that always seemed to get broken.

Sting retains by DQ. Arn Anderson just walks into the ring and breaks up the Figure Four. He proceeds to beat the crap out of Ric Flair. Good match, and it furthered the story for Anderson and Flair. Anderson got a huge reaction.

Scott “Flash” Norton confronts Bischoff, but is cut off by Randy Savage. Fans pop huge for this, I didn’t even remember this Norton moment to be fair. Savage wants to go right now, but it doesn’t happen. Still, really cool and another moment that showed anything could happen.

We get a Sabu hype video! Interesting Sabu didn’t get over in WCW. Probably cause he bought Mr. JL and Alex Wright every week. Still cool though.

We get some WCW Saturday Night hype. Then some Fall Brawl hype!

Michael Wallstreet debut promo. “I’m sure the IRS is going to be watching me real close.” Brilliant!

WCW World Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Big Bubba Rogers

Hogan vs. Bossman in 1995! It works though.

Hogan had actually been champion for some 13 months at this point.

We do get the announcement of Savage vs. Norton next week on Nitro! I’m actually excited for that one even though Norton would become a midcard guy.

Hogan looks better here than he did in WWF 1993, if that matters.

Oddly Hogan and the ref exchange words after Hogan gets his hair pulled by the ref. Interesting.

I always wondered how Hogan got away with heel moves like the double elbow foot eye rake deal.

The crowd is actually pretty dead for the Hulk Up.

Hulk Hogan retains by pin. But the pop huge for the pin. By the numbers Hogan match, but the Bossman sold for Hogan like a million bucks. Good main event considering who’s involved.
The Dungeon of Doom run in and attack Hogan…and Lex Luger runs in to fight them off! Hogan and Luger come back to back and nearly come to blows.

Luger challenges Hogan for a WCW World Title match, deriding the WWF in the process. He says some questionably true statements (“I’VE BEATEN WHO YOU’VE BEATEN”) and Hogan gives him credit…then offers him the title shot for next week’s Nitro! Sure, some words went wrong there (“I’ll shake your stinky palm” from Hogan and “you don’t have to wait till next week”, also from Hogan), but the whole segment was really effective.

This show was very good, and EXACTLY what WCW needed to kick off the Monday Night War. Vince probably watched this show and shit his pants, especially when Luger showed up. Now Vince had to go up against Hogan vs. Luger for the WCW Title next week. Serves Vince right for wasting Luger after he didn’t get over as the top guy in 93-94.

Not the best show, but a very good one that showcased a lot of great stuff for WCW. Historically, it’s one of the most important dates in pro wrestling history, and it laid the groundwork for RAWs you even see today, as this would be the end of squash matches against nobodies on Monday Night. Of course…that matters.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: A+

Weekly Review

RAW was pre-empted by the US Open and in fact had already taped all of their shows for the next two weeks. Nitro being live each week would put some serious pressure on the WWF to step up their game. The last RAW on August 21st, 1995 had MOM vs. two jobbers, the 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Brooklyn Brawler, The Undertaker vs. Tatanka, Jean-Pierre LaFitte vs. Scott Taylor (a nobody at this point) and Diesel and the British Bulldog vs. MOM. This show had Sting vs. Flair, Pillman vs. Liger and Hogan vs. the former Big Bossman. I mean…which show is the minor leagues again?

Nitro’s rating was also quite impressive. RAW had done (I am missing a source though) mid 2s to low 3s, so for Nitro to put up a rating in that range right off the bat was impressive.

The score remains tied at 0-0 here as there was no heads up battle…but next week will be a bigger story.

TV Ratings Score: 0-0

Grade Score: 0-0