WCW A-Sides? WCW Nitro 10/21/96

Bobby Eaton vs. Chris Jericho

ER: This match unexpectedly got a lot of time (nearly 8 minutes) and it really built into something fun after a slow, distracting start. You see, Syxx and nWo Sting came out under a big nWo banner and we would get occasional cutaways to those two in the crowd sucking away a lot of the attention. So there was a longish moment in the first half of this where Jericho held a hammerlock waiting for the crowd to come around. It was feeling like this was going to be a disappointment, but the whole thing snapped to life with a strike exchange. Jericho threw some nice slaps to Eaton's chest, then when they started throwing right hands I was in. Jericho would throw 2 or 3 for every 1 of Eaton's, with Eaton landing a couple doozies. Crowd didn't care about nWo members after this. Eaton fed Jericho some nice stuff, took his big springing dropkick that he bumped off the apron to the floor, Eaton takes a nice post shot then ducks so Jericho throws a back elbow to the post, shoot Eaton even takes a backdrop into the entrance way, far past the point the mats end. Eaton still gets a lot in this one even it's supposed to be building Jericho up for a match with Syxx, and we get a great Eaton kneedrop off the top right to Jericho's chest, and a cool reversal where he snaps a swinging neckbreaker to reverse a Jericho backdrop attempt, and I'm really glad this recovered and then some. It feels like nWo sucked the interest out of a lot of matches from this era, glad these two persevered.

We get a great Rey Misterio Jr. highlight package, him hitting a bunch of fast ranas while we get a lot of experimental 1996 digital video editing color washes and graphics, while some mournful instrumental guitar plays over it. Not mournful guitar like "Maggot Brain", but more like the mournful guitar in one of those scenes in Renegade where Lorenzo Lamas comes into contact with an old flame, and they reconnect somewhere at sunset, which is when he finds out she's now involved with the cartel.

Jimmy Graffiti vs. Dean Malenko

ER: This is the debut of Jimmy Graffiti, which is all kinds of weird 1996 wrestling. Graffiti is known better as Jimmy Del Ray, one half of the Heavenly Bodies, and it's shocking how much younger he looks without his Rod Beck fluffy mullet/handlebar mustache combo. A smooth face, sensible haircut, and his trademark pale complexion makes him look like the cruiserweight version of The Undertaker, if Undertaker was dressed like a 90s John Cena. I have no idea what the plan was, putting Jimmy Del Ray in baggy jorts and a hockey jersey with subway tagged wrestling boots, but he's out there and this weirdo must be face as Malenko was working heel opposite Rey during this time. And these two have a fun back and forth cruiser match, Graffiti getting a lot of nearfalls and taking some big bumps in exchange. Graffiti takes the Harley Race bump to the floor, getting his feet hooked on the bottom rope and dropping onto his head (and it's weird seeing Schiavone and Zbyszko doing commentary from a folding table right against the ring), and later Dean takes them both to the floor with a crossbody (potentially dangerous bump as it sends both to the floor faster than normal, Graffiti sprawling into the guardrail); Graffiti even takes a pretty mean backdrop suplex and eats some boots to the head from Dean. Malenko is overly generous with Graffiti, giving him several roll-ups nearfalls, Graffiti hits a big sitout powerbomb and a missile dropkick, gets to push out of the Cloverleaf a couple times, really he gets way more of the match than I would have guessed going in.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman

ER: Fun little match that adds a nice twist into it's sub-3 minute runtime. It looks like it's going to be a Page squash, and we get a cool moment of DDP hitting his great piledriver slam (really looks like he's bouncing foreheads off mat), and when Pittman kicks out it lands DDP on top of ref Nick Patrick (who has worn a neck brace all night) and as he sells back pain from DDP landing on him you wouldn't believe how loudly the crowd cheers his pain. I didn't remember nWo heel ref Nick Patrick being so reviled. DDP does a real clever bit of business here as he is on the floor and starts soaking up Nick Patrick's cheers as his own, allowing Pittman to reach through the ropes and grab DDP's arm, yanking him into the ringpost. Pittman is really vicious going after an arm, and I especially like when he throws uppercuts and short arm shoulderblocks to someone, here he also gets to stretch DDP's arm all around the ropes and even gets a visual tap to the Code Red armbar. Alas, Nick Patrick saw nothing, and Pittman eats a Diamondcutter nicely.

Ron Studd vs. Jeff Jarrett

ER: I like the concept of matching Jarrett up against a giant right before he is facing the Giant at Havoc, but they don't do much interesting with it. Studd lifts Jarrett up by the neck a few times, but then they have Jarrett actually hit a vertical suplex with no struggle at all, just gets on his tiptoes, tosses an arm over Studd, and lifts him right over. Then takes an eternity to lock on a figure 4.

Road Block vs. Lex Luger

ER: This episode is clearly booked around my sensibilities, as not only did we get the Jimmy Graffiti debut, but Road Block debuts on the same episode?! And I love how WCW used to handle the debuts of guys like this: Basically pretend you have no idea who they are. Road Block isn't going to beat Luger, but they're at least saying things like "who is this guy? He's huge!" There's a lot of Irish whipping in this match, both guys setting up nearly every attack by first whipping the other into the ropes or buckles, with Road Block standing up to lariats and throwing a few mean ones of his own. Big moment is Luger clotheslining Road Block to the floor, big bump for Block. Road Block is dressed like the world's largest swashbuckling pirate, with his two lane highway capris and a striped tank top that looks like something a lifeguard would wear, but the guy is huge, throws a nice lariat, and does an impossibly cool kneedrop right to Luger's face. The finish could have been really awkward, but Luger is so damn over and knows how to milk reaction that it totally works: Luger tries to get Road Block up for the torture rack, but can't. He tries twice and drops him. It doesn't appear that he is intentionally dropping him, just feels like he can't actually rack Road Block. Block just keeps standing back up after falling and getting back in position to be racked. After the second failed attempt Luger even looks to the hard cam and shrugs. But the fans never turn on him and nobody knew about the You Fucked Up chants, and since these are wrestling fans they just actually want to see him rack Road Block. So Luger tries it a third time, succeeds, the crowd flips out, Bischoff and Heenan flip out on commentary, and it turns out some actual human error made the moment a FAR bigger deal than if Luger had just got him up for the rack on the first attempt.

American Males vs. Harlem Heat

ER: Dear WCW, could you please show me the two teams from this era that I would LEAST like to see against each other? Great. Thank you. Also, WCW, could you give it more time than any match on this episode? Just let it go 10, see what these two teams have to offer? Cool. The match starts with Stevie Ray missing a stomach kick by 18", but does get better (although not enough to justify the runtime). Best moment came from Riggs hiptossing Booker T over the top to the floor and Booker bumping big for it (with Heenan rightly wondering why that wasn't a DQ). The rest was filled with a ton of AM dropkicks, a nice Stevie Ray lariat, Col. Parker taking his banana peel bump on the apron when Riggs hits him first, and one of those finishes that always seem to happen in matches with Buff Bagwell, where a pinfall gets broken up slightly too early or slightly too late, so the finish is really confusing and everyone stands around waiting for what to do. It feels like it happened too often in Bagwell matches to be a coincidence. Also, I gotta say I am loving Nick Patrick in his neck brace, holding his neck every single time he counts a pinfall.

The Fantastics vs. Faces of Fear

ER: 1996 Fantastics on my TV screen? What kind of magic episode is this!? But also, it's really weird that they went well over an hour into this episode without a tag match, and then ran back to back tag matches with two blowjob teams working the exact same match back to back. If you have the Fantastics making a weird one off 1996 TV appearance, maybe don't have your lame in house version of the Fantastics wrestle immediately before them. Also, as much as I like FoF, there's this expectation for Meng matches that rarely actually lives up to reality. Meng is regarded as one of the toughest dudes in pro wrestling history, so everybody always assumes that he has a laundry list of matches where he just takes mean liberties with opponents. But really, he doesn't. I have seen hardly any instances of Meng looking even slightly unprofessional - or even working slightly more stiff than normal - in any match. Look at any heel tag team squash match from 90s WWF and you will likely find a team that treats opponents worse than Meng does. That doesn't mean the matches aren't still fun though. This is mostly the FoF show, and honestly until the final 30 seconds of the match I wasn't sure that any of Bischoff/Heenan/Tenay even knew which Fantastic was which, or even knew their names. After hearing all of them repeatedly refer to each member of the team as "The Fantastics" the entire match (as in "The Fantastics really need to tag out here!"), it wasn't until Tenay actually mentioned Tommy Rogers during his hot tag that I figured at least Tenay knew. But then he *does* just call Bobby Fulton "Fulton", so it's possible he wasn't confident he could identify him as Jackie or Bobby. But just like with the American Males, we get mostly dropkicks from the Fantastics, with most of this worked as an extended FoF squash. We get one really great moment of Bobby taking a backdrop from Meng, but getting caught and powerbombed by Barbarian. Tommy takes a nice bump getting knocked off the apron by Meng, and even kicks Meng in the head a couple times to break up pinfalls (and again, someone knowing Meng's rep would then think that Meng was going to serve up a cruel receipt to Tommy, but that doesn't happen, because Meng only bites off noses outside of the ring), Fantastics throw a tandem dropkick off the middle and Tommy hits one off the top, but FoF amusingly win when Barbarian picks up Tommy for a front slam and Meng just kicks him in the head.

J.L. vs. nWo Sting

ER: I never understood why Jerry Lynn just went by "JL" in WCW. He was under a mask, he could have literally been any name, and it's not like the majority of fans knew who Jerry Lynn was in 1996 anyway. "Gotta keep these initials to stay true to my fans." This show was IN Minnesota. These are his people right here, and nobody knew he was a Minnesota boy. Had he been something 1996-cool like Laser Swarm or if the JL stood for something weird like Jett Lust, then he would have at least gotten a reaction for that. It doesn't get more non-starter than the name JL. nWo Sting gets a great reaction until people realize it's not actually Sting, and I love how he plays up all the mannerisms. The match is more angle than match, but I liked Sting's nice falling powerslam.