Perspectives of the Common Fan series
WCW Saturday Night Retrospective
October 28, 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 - October 28, 1995

The show opened with a look at a previous Nitro. I can't believe I missed it! Time to replace my DVR. 1995 Flashback: What's a DVR?

1 -- PAUL ORNDORFF vs. TODD MORTON

They showed a recap of last week where Mr. Wonderful broke his mirror in his match with Johnny B. Badd. Needless to say, he was pretty upset. He went after Morton, who looked like he was trying to keep the Rock 'n Roll Express alive. Typical squash with Orndorff getting the win with Morton getting little offense.

WINNER: Mr. Wonderful in about 3:00 via pinfall. (*)

A video of Mean Gene going through last Monday's Nitro aired, highlighting various events. It mainly focused on The Yeti's debut. Seriously, this was horrible. Funny in a way, and hey, they were trying, but, looking back, it looks so hokey.

2 -- EDDIE GUERRERO vs. JOEY MAGGS

Both guys went back-and-forth for a bit with Guerrero schooling Maggs on his mat skills. Not much else going on here as Maggs got the upper hand for a short while before Eddie bounced back and got the win. The crowd reaction wasn't too bad for him throughout the match.

WINNER: Eddie Guerrero in about 3:00 via submission (*) It's so weird seeing how Guerrero's character evolved through the years. He put on a ton of muscle in the years after he debuted with WCW.

3 -- MR. JL vs. BARRY HOUSTON

Who came up with the name Mr. JL for Jerry Lynn? I always wondered that. Not a bad debut, though. A few flashy moves throughout with Barry Houston getting his share of offense with the usual clothesline and slams. Lynn quickly bounced back, though, and got the win. When does a person debuting ever lose? Rarely.

WINNER: JL in 5:00 via pinfall. (*1/4)

They cut very quickly and pre-maturely to the previous week's VK Wallstreet-Jim Duggan masterpiece of a match.

A quick promo from Sting and Ric Flair aired hyping their match with State Patrol later on in the show.

4 -- VK WALLSTREET vs. CHUCK WILLIAMS

Wallstreet dominated early on. He seemed to have lost a bit of a step since his IRS days, but he came across fine here in this simple squash. Chuck Williams got the jobber offense in enough to get the crowd behind him, but it fell short, as Mr. Wallstreet took him out for the three count. There isn't much to describe in these matches; they're just so short.

WINNER: VK in just under 3:00 via pinfall.

5 -- AMERICAN MALES vs. HARLEM HEAT -- WCW World Tag Team Title match

Good early action with the crowd loving the Males. The Males worked Heat early on before Booker T managed to get over his heel tactics with Sherri's help throughout. They worked over Scotty Riggs for most of the second half of the match before he finally recovered and got the hot tag to Marcus Bagwell. Unfortunately, that didn't last long before Sherri's interference caused the ref to get distracted. Stevie Ray hit his spinning heel/superkick and Booker T got the cover for the three count. New champs! If only those belts meant anything now...

WINNERS: Harlem Heat in about 8:00 via pinfall. (**) Not a bad tag team match at all. Typical heel work and solid in-ring work from all four guys.

Harlem Heat and Sherri had a post-match victory promo where Sister Sherri called the American Males's original title win a fluke. Man, she was great on the mic. They quickly cut to Hawk's entrance.

6 -- ROAD WARRIOR HAWK vs. BOBBY STARR

Hawk dominated 99 percent of the match, getting over his power move set. A credit to Dusty Rhodes and Tony Schiavone for making Hawk seem like a singles star when he's been known as a tag wrestler. Not terrible for a squash match. He got the win with a top rope splash.

WINNER: Hawk in 2:00 via pinfall. (*1/2).

7 -- THE RENEGADE vs. Jobber #137

They cut right to Renegade coming out to the ring. The cuts are pretty bad on this show so far. Viewers hardly have time to breath between squash matches. Not much here - Renegade won with a splash. And it crowd goes wild! Not really.

WINNER: Renegade in less than 1:00 via pinfall and the usual top rope splash. (1/4*)

Randy Savage had some promo time with another typical, awesome Savage interview. One of the highlights of the show by far up to this point. He hyped that he would meet Luger if they both win their matches. WCW did a great job most of the last few months building up this feud. Good stuff. Gene said something about someone thinking this up and compared it to someone and Macho yelled "I'LL WRESTLE HIM TOO!" Hilarious.

A Nitro summary aired from the Monday before. Included was that terrible Dungeon Master skit again with the Yeti's debut. That has to be right up there for all-time flops. This was followed by another hype video from Sting and Flair for their upcoming match.

8 -- STING & RIC FLAIR vs. STATE PATROL

Sting and Ric Flair won in four minutes, then met with Mean Gene after their match. They cut a good promo to hype their match again Pillman and "Double A" Arn Anderson the next night at Halloween Havoc. Both guys showed a lot of fire with Flair feeling "better than ever" and Sting liking Flair's enthusiasm. He said he hesitated to help Flair on purpose at first, but is on-board now.

WINNER: Sting and Ric Flair in about 4:00 via submission. Okay for what it was.

They cut to a quick promo by Lex Luger hyping his next match versus the Shark.

9 -- LEX LUGER vs. SHARK

The commentators stated that The Taskmaster isn't as crazy with Shark taking on Lex Luger. They questioned his allegiance to Hulk Hogan before Luger took early control before Shark headed to the outside. Eventually, Shark took control and started to wear on Luger with a bearhug/sharkhug. Seriously. Shark Hug. That's what they said. Luger escaped and then hit a few clotheslines before Shark recovered and tossed him to the outside. The Taskmaster didn't attack him, and encouraged him to get up. Shortly after he got back in the ring, Meng came out when the ref was distracted by Taskmaster and hit a kick on... Shark! Good God, what a twist! Luger then covered for the pin.

WINNER: Luger in about 5:00 via pinfall. (*1/2) Not terrible, and hyped the PPV with a little hook at the end.

After the match, Luger cut a promo saying he's not sure what happened but he disposed of The Shark and is ready for Meng tomorrow night. He told Macho Man to be ready.

Hulk Hogan was then featured along with The Giant covering their entire feud. This was a pretty well-done video package to hype the PPV the following night. It lasted about 2-3 minutes or so.


Common Retrospective: I'm giving this show a solid C. The matches were pretty forgetful minus a few decent tag matches. Macho's promo was quick but great as was Sister Sherri. But, there were some bad quick cuts that made the show feel too rushed and crammed. That said, though, solid build for the Havoc PPV the following night. Stay tuned in a few weeks for my last installment of this series with the fall-out from Halloween Havoc! Until then, this has been your perspective from a common fan.

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What did you think? 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 show title).

This month, WWE Classics is featuring showcase matches from famous tournaments including some nice classic gems like the Crockett Cup of 1988. Also, Edge is being heavily featured since his recent retirement. WWE is touting over 10-plus hours of footage throughout his career. Lastly, Roddy Piper is featured throughout the month of June. A lot of good stuff here as usual and a ton of content.

Jimmy hails from Kissimmee, Fla., now residing in Spring Hill, Tenn., just south of Nashville. If you reek of awesomeness, he highly suggests that every wrestling Tweet not only ends with #IWantWrestling, but also #RWCA. Why? Because it's the best thing going today.

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

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