Perspectives of the Common Fan series
WCW Saturday Night Retrospective
September 30, 1995
By Jimmy Eaton, PWTorch contributor

As part of WWE's video library offerings, WWEClassics.com runs a regular WCW Saturday Night series replaying episodes of WCW's weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS. Jimmy Eaton will be reviewing retrospective episodes in chronological order.

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Episode - September 23, 1995

The show opens with Tony Schiavone welcoming everyone to a special two-hour edition of the show. He goes on to introduce Dusty Rhodes to the show as a host. He gets a huge pop and Heenan gets upset telling him that he has to leave. Dusty refuses, so The Brain says he'll leave instead. In a funny two-minute bit he comes back and forth saying it's their last chance to apologize. He's going to count to ten. He comes back again and says they'd better not beg him to come back. Funny stuff. Eventually Bobby leaves and they go to the ring for a US Title match.

X -- U.S. champion Sting vs. Johnny B. Badd -- U.S. Title match...or not?

Johnny B. Badd doesn't come to the ring when announced. Sting then makes his entrance and says they need to give Badd more time. They end up re-scheduling the match as they throw it to Mean Gene. He says this is very unlike Badd but Brian Pillman interrupts him. Pillman cuts a great little promo saying that he took Badd to the limit at Fall Brawl and he's unable to go tonight it seems. He says he should get the title match instead. Even here you could tell Pillman was going to be a star on the mic. Good stuff here. They cut to Arn Anderson making his way to the ring.

1 -- ARN ANDERSON vs. Jobber #492 MARK STARR

This was a back and forth contest at first with a lot of mat wrestling before Arn started working the arm. Starr eventually gets back in control but only for a minute before Double A hits the spinebuster for the win.

WINNER: Arn Anderson by pinfall in about 4:00. A textbook Double A match. Squash or not, no complaints here. (*1/2)

After the match, they try to start the U.S. Title match again.

X -- U.S. champion Sting vs. Johnny B. Badd -- U.S. Title match...and, then again, maybe not

Badd still does not make his entrance. They ask Sting if he wants a forfeit win and Sting says no, he wants to wrestle Badd. He wants them to go to Nick Bockwinkel and get it worked out. They cut back to Gene who is with Pillman again who says he has the best solution - put himself in the match again Sting for the title. He says Badd doesn't deserve the shot. They tease looking back at Nitro later in the show and plug Lex Luger vs. Macho Man for the upcoming Nitro as well as Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson.

2 -- "MR. WONDERFUL" PAUL ORNDORFF vs. Jobber #31 BARRY HOUSTON

Orndorff does his mirror shtick, then the match gets underway. Houston works his arm early but Orndorff regains control and they eventually spill to the outside. Orndorff nails him with some elbows and eventually they get back into the ring and Orndorff hits a double-axe handful off the top rope. A lot of intensity by Mr. Wonderful here. He finishes off Houston with a jumping piledriver and the win. They mentioned during the match how Gary Spiver (a psychic of some kind) helped Mr. Wonderful see that he was Wonderful.

WINNER: Mr. Wonderful by pinfall in about 3:00. Good intensity from Orndorff here. (*1/4)

They then break to Mean Gene, who gives a rundown of last Monday's Nitro where the Giant attacked everyone. They then recap the feud between him and Hogan and cut to the Taskmaster and The Giant, who say that it's not even a challenge and if he's going to be in Denver this Monday, then he's in trouble. The same with Randy Savage. And Sting. Taskmaster hands him pictures that the Giants rips up. They close with saying that the truck Hulk Hogan has will be only parts when they're done with it, and that Hogan had better not show up in Denver. Commercial time, up next teasing words from Hulk Hogan.

Back from commercial, Hogan cuts a pre-taped promo talking about how his timing is impeccable. He said that Jimmy Hart has already scouted his monster truck. Hogan says he's going to chop the Giant down to size like a showdown at high noon. Lightning will strike twice in the same place. He mentioned how in Detroit he took out Andre the Giant, and at Halloween Havoc, he'll slam the Giant through the mat as well. He'll be laying to rest right next to his father, brother.

A promo video then airs of the American Males. It looks like a Calvin Klein ad. After the video, they make their way to the ring. It's no surprise the girls love them.

3 -- WCW tag champions AMERICAN MALES (BUFF BAGWELL & SCOTTY RIGGS) vs. Bario Brothers (get it? like Mario?) -- non-title match

The American Males start fast and connect with a double springboard cross-body to the outside of the ring. They continue to work together with Riggs hitting a dropkick after a nice sequence. He tags in Bagwell but he is finally separated as one-half of the Bario Brothers gets his knees up to block a splash. The match continues with the Bario Brothers working the crowd and isolating Bagwell. Later in the match, Riggs breaks up a count after a big spot with Bagwell getting clotheslined off the shoulders of one half of the Bario Brothers. Eventually, though, Bagwell leapfrogs over and Riggs comes in for a double dropkick and the victory. Tony Schiavone plugs their title defense against the Nasty Boys on Monday Night Nitro.

WINNERS: American Males in 7:00 via pinfall. (*3/4)

After the match, a quick Ric Flair promo airs for his appearance later in the show.

4 -- SGT. CRAIG "PITBULL" PITMANN vs. COBRA (yes, again)

As both men make their way to the ring, Schiavone amusingly talks about their CIA background and "special mission together." Hey, at least they're attempting a back-story. The match isn't that long as they both wrestle to the mat with Cobra getting the upper hand until a running headbutt from the Pitbull. Cobra recovers and backs him into the corner and gets up for the crowd-favorite "ten punches," but the Pitbull powerslams him for the one, two, three.

WINNER: Pitmann in 3:00 via pinfall. (3/4*)

5 -- BIG BUBBA ROGERS vs. "HACKSAW" JIM DUGGAN

A lot of brawling as both of these guys usually do with the action rolling to the outside. Bubba eventually gets the upper hand with multiple strikes and rolls Duggan back into the ring. They brawl a bit more, but Hacksaw bounces back with a slam. They both get back to their feet and collide mid-ring as the ref starts a double count-out. They both recover though as VK Wallstreet (also known as IRS in WWE, Mike Rotundo) makes his way to the ring to try and take Hacksaw's 2x4. Bubba pulls out some tape and hits Duggan in the back of the head after the distraction for the three out.

WINNER: Big Bubba in 5:00. It was nice that throughout the match they plugged the debut of Eddie Guerrero, as well as Dean Malenko, on Nitro. They were mentioned throughout the show. (*)

DDP makes his way to the ring with the also beautiful Kimberly. Page is excellent as a heel here showing the makings of a star. He threatened the WCW mascot and yelled at fans on his way to the ring. He was also accompanied by Max Muscle.

6 -- DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE (w/Kimberly & Max) vs. Jobber #11 EDDIE JACKIE

DDP takes early control, which is followed by a sloppy exchange. However, Eddie Jackie recovers nicely and hits some flashy moves including a spinning heel kick to Page in the corner. He goes out of the ring but holds on and pulls himself back up. He continues to get in some offense while hitting a clothesline but shortly after Page ties him up and hits a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere for the win (With a cocky pin attempt as well). He holds up a "0" number card over his fallen opponent.

After the match, Mean Gene interviews DDP, who says that he should be the number one contender to Sting's U.S. Title. Max Muscle agrees, although, he and Page don't seem to be on the same page (no pun intended).

WINNER: DDP in 3:00. (*)

After the match/interview, a quick "Double A" Arn Anderson promo airs with him calling out Ric Flair for their match on Monday Night.

7 -- RIC FLAIR vs. Jobber #9 FRANKIE LANDCASTER

The jobber Landcaster gets an advantage after a few moments into the match working the arm of Flair. Flair, though, regains control and starts working the leg of Landcaster at about the two-minute mark. During the match, it's announced that Johnny B. Badd cannot be found so Brian Pillman will get the shot at Sting for the U.S. Title later on. Flair keeps working the leg in a nice series of exchanges, looking very solid in the process. Nice selling by the jobber after a single-legged Boston crab. Shortly after, Ric Flair slaps on the figure-four and he's history.

WINNER: Ric Flair via submission in just under five minutes. (*1/4)

After the match, they shoot it over to Nitro preview with Mean Gene (nobody does it any better), where he runs down the history of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Lex Luger feud. See, this is missing in WWE and TNA. It took only about a minute, but it was very effective selling the story.

Flyin' Brian Pillman then makes his way to the ring.

8 -- U.S. champion STING vs. FLYIN' BRIAN PILLMAN -- U.S. Title match

Pillman is fantastic with his crowd interactions and he motions to the camera that he's so sad Badd couldn't be here for his title match. Sting heads to the ring and they go for a test of strength early on. Pillman is his typical, sneaky heel self but Sting stays in control for the first portion of the match, hitting a clothesline and a dropkick. Pillman fights back, though, and gets the upper hand, playing to the crowd. Great stuff. The match doesn't get much further than this though as Sting fights back and hits a scoop slam for the victory. Surprisingly short.

WINNER: Sting retained the U.S. Title in 6:00. Good main event. Pillman is money and Sting was in his prime. Way too short, though. I was expecting more when it came to the allotted time, as they were just getting into second gear before the finish. (**1/4)

After the match, Ric Flair asked Sting again to join him against Pillman and Arn Anderson. He tried more convincing when Sting said no and left. Flair brought him back and tried to sell him again but still said no. Flair goes to the back frustrated. Mean Gene then brings in Johnny B. Badd, who said he had car trouble getting to the arena on the "biggest night of my career." Gene said why didn't he call and he said he didn't have a phone. DDP comes out and says that he hopes he gets those four flat tires fixed. Badd said that he never said it was four and punched him to end the show. It seems DDP slashed his tires. Oh no!

OVERALL: Nice way to close the show, as they sold many of the storylines heading into Nitro the following Monday. Good main event as well to cap off a solid show. Give me fewer matches a some more time to a few of them and this was an A show. I'll stick with a B+, though. Some of the talent was very forgettable and downright cheesy (I'm looking at you, American Males), but the action was solid throughout the night and surprisingly not too rushed. Halloween Havoc was also mentioned several times throughout the show.

Until next time, this has been your retrospective, from a common fan.

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What did you readers think? Feel free to E-Mail me at potcfpodcast@gmail.com, via Twitter @TheCommonFan, or at www.facebook.com/thecommonfan with your thoughts and feedback. Also feel free to check out my Perspectives of the Common Fan podcast at www.potcf.blogspot.com, also available on iTunes (Search show title). New episode this Sunday night!

This month WWEClassics.com is airing shows from 1986. Including WrestleMania 2 in its entirety.

Jimmy hails from Kissimmee, Fla., now residing in Brentwood, Tenn., just south of Nashville. Despite unfounded reports of sneaking around TNA's Corporate office, he flatly denies any involvement with "Immortal," "They," "Them," or "It."

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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