Perspectives of the Common Fan series
WCW Saturday Night Retrospective
October 14, 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.

***

Episode - October 14, 1995

The show started with the usual opening followed by a clip of Sting accepting Ric Flair's request - after numerous attempts - to be his tag team partner. This will end up being the theme throughout the show. They kick off the show with Road Warrior Hawk. Nice. I didn't know he did singles work back in WCW.

1 -- ROAD WARRIOR HAWK vs. CHRIS KANYON

Kanyon was hilarious here making fun of Hawk by getting on the top rope and mocking his facial expressionS. Hawk took him out from behind, though, and worked him over for a few minutes with Kanyon's offense few and far between. Eventually, he took him out with a fist-drop in the center of the ring.

WINNERL Hawk via pinfall in 3:00. Not bad for what it was. Kanyon looked good in defeat and showed some personality and Hawk got a needed win to push his character. (*)

A quick promo aired with Alex Wright telling Disco Inferno that he's not here to dance, he's here to wrestle. This was to hype their match later in the show. They came back from commercial with the familiar 'Yes, yes, yes. No, no no..."

2 -- HARLEM HEAT (BOOKER T & STEVIE RAY w/Sister Sherri) vs. THE SOUTHERN POSSE

Not a bad match here, especially when I thought it would be a squash, but I guess when the other team has a name, it's all good. But, not a bad match with quick tags and some decent action all around. Stevie Ray and Booker T (I forgot how tall he is) did their signature double team moves throughout and Booker T ended up getting the win after a nice-looking heat bomb.

WINNERS: Harlem Heat via pinfall in 8:00. It was funny to see Sherri obviously slap one of the Southern Posse, but there was no DQ. Ah, that Sherri, always getting away with stuff! Fun ending, though. (*1/2)

A quick promo from Disco Inferno airs hyping his match with Alex Wright later in the show. The Taskmaster made his way to the ring. Yippee.

3 -- THE TASKMASTER vs. Jobber #78

Usual Taskmaster match. He hit the standing double stomp for the win. Before that, he manhandled his opponent and acted deranged. Not much else here really.

WINNER: Taskmaster Kevin Sullivan in 2:00. (1/4*)

After not much of a break, The Renegade ran out to the ring.

4 -- The Renegade vs. Jobber #19

Here's your summary: he hit the top-rope splash for the three count. Very little else went on, but at least it was more than a minute long!

WINNER: Renegade in 2:00. (1/4*)

A promo airs from Nitro with Hulk Hogan (in bluck) cutting a promo on the Dungeon of Doom with a side-by-side shot of The Giant trying to get into the arena in a monster truck. The Taskmaster and Zodiac are on the truck, too, with the Zodiac looking like a complete moron. Cops came and tried to block the monster truck. I really just wanted Giant to run them down but, alas, it didn't happen. Kidding, of course. Back to the ring for the next match.

5 -- ARN ANDERSON & BRIAN PILLMAN vs. Jobber #86 & Todd Morton

Todd looked just like Ricky. Long blonde hair and all. Interesting. Anderson and Pillman worked the great heel role, coming out flashing the Four Horsemen sign. Good stuff. Solid back and forth action throughout, but Anderson eventually hit the spinebuster, which led to Pillman locking in a modified Sharpshooster.

WINNERS: Anderson & Pillman in 7:00. Nice match with Pillman and Anderson coming off really strong. You could tell they had so much talent and I wish Anderson could still go and Pillman was still alive. That's why I enjoy taking a trip down memory lane. (*3/4)

After the match, Arn Anderson and Pillman cut a promo on Sting and Ric Flair. I remember this angle really hooked me back in the day. Does it hold up? I think it does, to be honest. Well done with both Pillman and Anderson stealing the show on the mic. Awesome. Then, a quick promo with Sting and Lex Luger aired where Sting says he's not sure if he can trust Ric Flair, but he can trust Luger.

6 -- MENG vs. Jobber #39

Meng pretty much squashed this poor dude with some strikes and a sitdown powerbomb before he ended up getting the win with the dreaded nerve hold! He didn't sell much (Meng that is), but I think it was intentional to put him over as a monster.

WINNER: Meng via submission in 3:00. (*)

After the match, Taskmaster and Meng met up with Mean Gene and talked down Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Lex Luger. Mean Gene then threw it to Disco Inferno for a promo... while dancing. He also has the best scared impressions out of anyone I've seen, especially when Meng is throwing air punches and grunting. Ah, those were the days.

7 -- DISCO INFERNO vs. ALEX WRIGHT

Disco tries to attack Wright at the start of the match, but Wright counters and they're underway. Typical Saturday Night match with some decent stuff from Disco and Wright including some nice chain-wrestling, armdrags, and the usual care-free Disco character ticking off the crowd. Wright hits a dropkick, but Disco gets up quickly and whips him to the corner. After more showboating from Disco, Alex Wright hits a German Suplex for the three count and the victory.

WINNER: Wright in 6:00. (*1/2)

After the match, Disco told Mean Gene he was celebrating his win despite losing. Pretty funny. He was good at being obnoxiously annoying. They then showed footage from the past Nitro with Sting trying to moderate Randy Savage and Lex Luger's issues. They yelled at each other and sold their tension with everything going on with Hulk Hogan. At the same time, they were hyping Luger-Meng and Savage-Kamala at Halloween Havoc. Mr. Wonderful then made his way to the ring.

8 -- MR. WONDERFUL PAUL ORNDORFF vs. Jobber #48

Stiff strikes from Mr. Wonderful to start and the jobber got in very little offense. They did go back and forth for a bit, but any offense from the jobber was short-lived. A bodyslam followed by a few short moments later and Mr. Wonderful nailed his great-looking piledriver for the three count.

WINNER: Orndorff in 6:00. Really good intensity again from Mr. Wonderful, he's been like that for a few shows now. Really good energy on his part. (*1/4)

Afterward, Mr. Wonderful joined Mean Gene and they hyped his TV Title chase looking to take the belt from DDP. Mean Gene also sings. Seriously, but it's Mean Gene, so it's automatically funny, right? I say yes. They threw to another quick promo hyping Luger-Sting, leading up to the main event of the night.

9 -- STING & LEX LUGER vs. BARRIO BROTHERS

Sting and Luger went over pretty easy here showing off their signature moves for the live crowd. Sting hit a suplex at one point while holding off the other Barrio brother. He tagged in Luger, who beat on him a bit more. Quick tags occurred before eventually the Barrio brother made the tag for a short offensive burst, but the good guys held them off. In the end, Luger pulled it out for his team with the Torture Rack. The crowd was really into the match and loved seeing the stars live.

WINNERS: Sting & Luger in 10:00. Not a bad match at all focusing on Sting and Luger's "friendship" despite everything Dungeon of Doom had done. (**)

The show neared its closing point with Hulk Hogan in a pre-taped promo. The Hulkster ran down The Giant again. I think he needed one of those "I Bring it via Satellite" t-shirts. He said there is a "dark side" to The Hulkster. He's sick of the back attacks from The Giant and says he's scared to face him. He feels bad for the sick Hulkamaniacs... and wants to eat their diseases alive...? Seriously, he said that. He then hyped the big match at Halloween Havoc and the monster trucks to end the show.

Common Retrospective: Not a bad show, as it was really heavy on the Halloween Havoc build. I find it interesting that back in WCW they mentioned PPVs every week non-stop. In TNA today, for example? Hardly any hype in general. It just goes to show how the times have changed. But, nonetheless, the show had some decent wrestling even if most of them were squash matches, but hardly any match minus the main event went close to being over ten minutes.

The commentary was funny at times with Dusty rambling about nonsense but, hey, that made it fun sometimes. But, they accomplished what they had to and the storyline build-up was solid. I'm not saying the stories were good, just well-built and with a few weeks left to Halloween Havoc, I would have been excited. If it were 16 years ago. But, it should be noted that the title needs should have been emphasized more instead of the trucks, and the mention of "putting Giant in a grave next to his Father" seemed a bit unnecessary, even for mid-'90s WCW. I'll give this show a C. Thanks for reading and this has been your retrospective, from a common fan!

Feel free to email me at potcfpodcast@gmail.com, via Twitter @TheCommonFan, or at www.facebook.com/thecommonfan with your thoughts and feedback. Also feel free to tune in to my Perspectives of the Common Fan podcast over at www.potcf.blogspot.com also available on iTunes (search the show title).

This month, WWE Classics is featuring showcase matches from everyone in the Hall of Fame class of 2011. Good stuff from the looks of it, especially for Shawn Michaels fans.

Jimmy hails from Kissimmee, Fla., now residing in Brentwood, Tenn., soon to be Spring Hill, Tenn., both just south of Nashville. If you reek of awesomeness, he highly suggests that every wrestling tweet not only ends with #IWantWrestling, but also #RWCLove. Why? Because it's the most mediocre thing going today.

[Torch art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]

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