This Day In Wrestling History - April 15

Date: April 15, 1996 (18 years ago)

Feature: Ultimate Warrior returned to WWF/E TV the week before on April 8, then the Apr. 15 edition of the Monday Night War picked up steam with Bret Hart "shooting" on his WM12 Iron Man loss to Shawn Michaels opposite WCW Nitro's main event of Sting & Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair & The Giant (Big Show).

Torch Back-Issue: PWTorch Newsletter #384.

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WWF Raw Results 4/15
Taped 4/1
Report by Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

The show opened with footage of Bret Hart storming out of the arena after his title loss. Vince McMahon promo'd that Bret will be breaking his "deafening silence" on the program...

(1) Marc Mero beat Leif Cassidy at 9:23. A very good match. Lots of innovative spots and high energy as always by Mero. Al Snow has the Cassidy character down well, also. The best line was by Lawler: "That was the carousel head scissors. Mero's stealing my moves"... McMahon and Lawler interviewed Diesel on the phone from Germany. Nash said he has a master plan and he's the smartest man in the business...

(2) "Stone Cold" Steve Austin beat Bart Gunn at 11:00. Another good match... McMahon interviewed... well, actually, he held the microphone for Cornette. "I may not be Jean Dixon, but I've got a crystal ball. I've looked into your future and I see the future of Razor Ramon after Apr. 28 taking a severe and sharp downward spiral. Razor Ramon may soon cease to exist. Razor Ramon made some very bad career choices by signing a contract to wrestle Vader." Cornette was especially good perhaps because he was shooting. He concluded, "You're never going to forget that the WWF assigned you the man they call Vader," almost trying to imply Vader would be shooting on him. Of course, he's not going to, but why not give that impression... A bumper with a segment of Bret's interview aired. He said that he's let his family become strangers and strangers become family and sometime he's going to have to swap that arrangement... The Sunny music video aired...

(3) Goldust beat Savio Vega via DQ after a false IC Title change. After a convincing ref bump, Marlena gave Goldust the belt to hit Savio, but Savio got it and nailed Goldust. They did the Dusty finish with a second referee disagreeing with the decision of the first ref. Gorilla Monsoon held up the title and ordered a rematch next week on Raw... Jim Ross plugged his 900 line segment, the question being Mean Gene-esque: "What is it that British Bulldog and Magic Johnson have in common?"...

An excellent segment aired on Bret. It showed him leaving the arena after the match telling the camera man to "f--- off for a while." Bret said he would have won the match had it continued at the 60 minute mark. Bret said, "I could never see myself working for another organization because it would be a step down." He said other groups are throwing money around. He said he's not greedy for money, he's greedy for respect which comes from being in the WWF. He said every time he loses the title he feels betrayed...

***

WCW Nitro Live Results
April 15, 1996
Report by Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Eric Bischoff opened: "Forget that canned stuff. This is real, this is live, this is fresh, this is WCW Nitro. This isn't history, this is history in the making."

(1) Hulk Hogan beat Kevin Sullivan & Arn Anderson at 4:28. Anderson and Sullivan attacked Hogan at the bell. Hogan's offense was especially pathetic during this match. Weak chairshots, weak clotheslines, weak punches, bad timing. The crowd, though, was definitely hot. Hogan won with a legdrop. Hogan ordered Elizabeth and Woman into the ring per the match stipulations. Woman held Liz in front of her. Hogan then went after Jimmy Hart instead. Giant came to the ring to make the save. Hogan popped up from the chokeslam (apparently the original plans were for Hogan to be stretchered, but he changed the plans minutes before airtime). Hogan then slammed The Giant. Gene Okerlund surprised Hogan from behind and Hogan almost slammed Gene before realizing who he was. Hogan did a brief interview and then posed. McMichael said he "loves" Hogan...

(2) The Nasty Boys beat The Public Enemy at 8:40.

(3) Randy Savage pinned Earl Robert Eaton after a top rope elbow at 3:55. Eaton taunted Savage by imitating Flair and putting the figure-four on him. After the match several wrestlers tried to stop Savage from spazzing out. Savage was handcuffed to keep him in control (which ECW did two nights earlier in Queen to the Gangstas)...

(4) Lex Luger & Sting beat Flair & Giant (w/Woman and Elizabeth) via DQ. Bischoff observed the fans in the arena were still standing since the beginning of the broadcast. McMichael (color guy) asked Bischoff (play by play) which titles were on the line in this match - which begs the question: What is Steve McMichael there for? Flair dragged Sting to the mat by his new longer hair. Sting kipped up a couple times in a row. After a series of leapfrogs by Sting, Sting press slammed Flair and kicked Giant off the apron. Sting threw Flair over the top rope into Giant's arms. Lex tagged in and pressed Flair over the top rope into Giant's arms once again. Because Giant threw Flair into the ring again, Flair got mad and chopped him in retaliation. Giant responded by chasing Flair back to the locker room. After a commercial break, Flair and Giant seemed to have made up and took over offense on Luger. Flair applied the figure-four at 9:20 and grabbed the ropes for added leverage. Sting hot-tagged in at 11:00. Woman threw coffee at Luger, but Luger ducked and it hit Sting. Heenan said Luger set Sting up.

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