Review: Monday Nitro – September 4, 1995: This Feels Appropriate Today
Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Monday Nitro #1
Date: September 4, 1995
Location: Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Attendance: 2,000
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Steve McMichael, Bobby Heenan
So nearly three years after Raw got going, WCW woke up and realized that being on Saturday nights at 6:05 for your flagship show wasn’t the brightest idea in the world so they decided to go head to head with Raw by debuting Monday Nitro. Their first episode aired unopposed due to Raw having the night off, which really was the right thing to do when you think about it. This is a show I’ve seen at least 5 or 6 times so let’s get to it.
I always liked the intro video for Nitro as it was a street more or less blowing up with pictures of wrestlers and a great song. It really was cool and I liked it better than Raw’s for a long time. That’s also a great way to set the stage for the show.
The announcers welcome us to the show. I don’t think anyone knew who McMichael (a former Chicago Bear) was outside of Chicago, but when did that really bother WCW?
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman
This is a rematch of a masterpiece that opened SuperBrawl II in 1992. Liger is just coming back from a broken leg so he might be a bit rusty, meaning he’ll be better than 95% of the wrestlers in the world. Naturally, they start off hot with both guys jockeying for position. This is another one of those pairings where it’s hard to mess it up. Eric is pitching the company like no other which is fine here as it might be the first show for a lot of viewers
Liger gets an early two off a moonsault press and it’s off to an early chinlock. Brian comes back with chops in the corner and a bad looking middle rope hurricanrana for two. We’re two minutes into the match and Mongo and Heenan are already calling each other names. This could be a really long night. We get the surfboard submission from Liger which is a move that I always mark for. Bobby: “I never go surfing. I always have people do it for me.” I love that. McMichael is trying but he’s just lost out there. For the life of me I have no idea why they thought he was a good idea.
Liger sends Pillman to the floor for a flip dive off the apron and Brian is in trouble. Pillman comes back with a suplex to the floor and a big crossbody off the top to put Jushin down again. Back in and Liger crotches Pillman on the top for a hurricanrana