FEBRUARY 8
1991
EMLL held a card at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City that featured a tremendously fun ***1/2 match where Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata and El Brazo) teamed to face Kato Kung Lee, Super Astro and Volador.
1992
New Japan Pro Wrestling held a card in Sapporo which featured Jushin Liger defeating Norio Honaga to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in a stellar, ****1/2 match.
On USWA television, The Moondogs interrupted an interview from Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett by attacking them with garbage cans. This set off a crazy brawl with Lawler and Jarrett getting the upper hand until Big Black Dog debuted to swing the numbers back in the Moondogs’ favor.
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event aired on FOX for the first time, taped on January 27 from Lubbock, TX. The key event of the show was the official heel turn of Sid Justice, who walked out on Hulk Hogan during a tag match against Ric Flair and The Undertaker. Also on the show, Randy Savage defeated Jake Roberts to conclude their feud. Jake teased an attack on Elizabeth as the show went off the air, and we later saw additional footage on WWF Superstars of the Undertaker preventing the attack and turning babyface. The show drew an 8.1 rating, and you can watch it on the WWE Network.
1997
The Spellbinder challenged Brian Christopher to an arm wrestling match on USWA television, and not just any arm wrestling match, but one where they would have candles on each side of their arms and the loser would get burned. Live television is always a joy when fire is involved in an angle, as the candles repeatedly burned out at first. Just when Christopher was about to make a comeback, Spellbinder threw a surprise fireball in his face.
1999
WCW Monday Nitro aired live from Buffalo, NY, in front of 15,378 fans. This show may have been the point when the booking really fell completely off the deep end, as this episode of Nitro was filled to the brim with bad matches with questionable-at-best finishes and awful skits. First, Eric Bischoff’s weekly humiliation and subsequent outsmarting of Ric Flair happened when he was placed on bathroom detail, which set up Bischoff giving Hulk Hogan bleach to throw in Steve McMichael’s face later in the show. We would never again see “Mongo” on WCW television. Speaking of Hogan, he purposely created friction among the so-called NWO B-Team by pitting Brian Adams, Stevie Ray and Vincent against each other by telling all of them separately that they were in charge. This never went anywhere. Also on the show, more vignettes aired of Raven at home, where we learned that he had been acting depressed in order to annoy his mom when he really was not. He took Kanyon shopping for clothes and gave him a makeover in a terrible skit. The poorly conceived and produced skits did not stop there, as Torrie Wilson made her debut by talking to a camera which was supposed to represent another person’s point of view. His identity would be a mystery for now. And finally, Diamond Dallas Page attacked Scott Steiner when he stalked Kimberly outside the building. Steiner ended up taking off in a car with Kimberly before dumping her out. She took a hell of a bump and was carted out on a stretcher and put in an ambulance. It was an awfully hardcore angle to just be treated as another feud instead of centering the entire show around and having it addressed by WCW President Ric Flair. The company also could not grasp basic concepts surrounding kayfabe and point of view, as Bret Hart attacked Will Sasso on MadTV in a skit played for laughs and we were supposed to buy this as a premise to set up a “real” match on Nitro. Speaking of Bret, he dropped the WCW U.S. title to Roddy Piper in a match so embarrassingly heatless that it was uncomfortable to watch. With no competition from RAW, this horrific show still managed to draw a huge 5.67 rating.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xatz64_roddy-piper-vs-bret-hart-u-s-title_sport
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xatzbs_roddy-piper-vs-bret-hart-u-s-title_sport
In The “To Watch” Queue:
Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko vs Brian Pillman & Mike Graham (WCW Pro 02/08/92)
