Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Nitro
Date: 11/3/1997
From: Philadelphia, PA
Matches:
1.) Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko defeated WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. & Lord Steven Regal
2.) Fit Finlay defeated Dave Taylor
3.) Yuji Nagata defeated Psychosis
4.) Perry Saturn defeated WCW Television Champion Disco Inferno to win the title
5.) Chris Jericho defeated Scott Hall
6.) The Giant won a Cruiserweight battle royal
7.) Ric Flair defeated Alex Wright
8.) Ray Traylor defeated Steve McMichael
9.) WCW World Tag Team Champions Steiner Brothers defeated Public Enemy in a street fight to retain the titles
10.) Lex Luger defeated WCW United States Champion Curt Hennig by disqualification
Angle Developments/Notes:
1. The show opened up with highlights of the Sting/Hogan contract signing. The footage saw Hogan call Sting a coward and Sting respond by smacking his bat on the table to put fear in Hogan.
2. The opener was an odd tag match that saw Eddie Guerrero team with hated rival Dean Malenko while WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. teamed with Lord Steven Regal whom he has had his fair amount of issues with during the year. The match was decent, but they weren’t given much time to do anything. Guerrero powerbombed Mysterio but when he went for the frog splash, Malenko tagged himself in and put the Cloverleaf on Mysterio to win the match. After the match, Regal shows his disgust with Mysterio by shoving him with his foot.
3. Fit Finlay overcame Dave Taylor with a tombstone pile driver. Taylor got a few decent moves in such as a head scissors and a press slam into a gut buster but Finlay was just too powerful.
4. Eric Bischoff called in and talk to the announcers expressing the fact that he isn’t happy they continue to say that Hogan is hiding from Sting when he has been offering championship matches and Sting hasn’t showed up. He also rips on Piper who apparently suffered a kidney injury at Halloween Havoc. Bischoff finishes off saying that the New World Order will have a surprise for next week’s show.
5. Yuji Nagata competed against Psychosis, who was once managed by Sonny Ono who now manages Nagata. Nagata took care of business as he forced Psychosis to tap out with the Nagata Lock after Ono got involved.
6. A video of Raven sitting in a classroom is aired. Raven talked about being ailentated from everyone else and he was taunted. He has never followed the rules in his life. That could explain why he insists on Raven Rules matches.
7. Saturn was on a mission and that was to beat Disco Inferno for the WCW Television. Well, he achieved that in rather convincing fashion as Inferno didn’t really get any substantial offense in against Saturn who forced Inferno to give up with the Rings of Saturn.
8. Ric Flair came out for an interview segment where he talked about facing WCW United States Champion Curt Hennig at World War III. Flair said that he will catch up to Hennig as well because he is a star.
9. Scott Hall came out to the ring to cut a promo about his injured friends Kevin Nash and Syxx. He also talked about Larry Zbyszko being good ten years ago but he can’t beat Eric Bischoff. Zbyszko is on commentary and wants Hall to sign the contract to wrestle him but Hall doesn’t.
10. Hall remained in the ring as he had a match against Chris Jericho. However, the match didn’t go the way Hall would’ve liked it to go. Hall had control for a good amount of the contest but Jericho was able to pick up the biggest win of his career to this point with a roll up. Hall would get his payback be destroying Jericho afterwards after hitting the Edge. Larry Zbyszko comes down to the ring as Hall continues to attack Jericho. Hall leaves refusing to sign the contract and Zbyszko calls him a coward.
11. The Giant dominated a mini Cruiserweight battle royal when he demolished Ciclope, Silver King, El Dandy, Juventud Guerrera, Villiano IV and V, and Damien. Giant did this to show Kevin Nash that he is the true giant.
12. Ric Flair took on Alex Wright in what would be a solid match overall. Wright had Debra by his side for the contest. Flair ends up winning the contest with the figure four leg lock.
13. Ray Traylor pins Steve McMichael following a side slam after Goldberg came out to ringside to distract Mongo as he was wearing his Super Bowl ring that Debra had given him.
14. Diamond Dallas Page came out for an interview where talked about having injured ribs and competed against Savage and Hogan in back to back nights. Page believes that he has the heart to win the World War III battle royal.
15. WCW World Tag Team Champions Steiner Brothers successfully defended the titles against Public Enemy in a Philadelphia street fight. Grunge missed a dive and crashed through tables allowing Scott to earn the win. The match was better than the match that took place last week since this was more of Public Enemy’s environment.
16. WCW United States Champion Curt Hennig escaped with the championship by defeating Lex Luger by disqualification due to Ric Flair coming out and attacking him. Luger appeared to have the match won when he had the Torture Rack on Hennig, but they fell to the floor where Flair came out and attacked Hennig. After Hennig escaped from the ring, Flair and Luger had a confrontation to close the show.
Final Thoughts:
It was another eventful show, but maybe a tad off par with what they had been dishing out for the past month or so. The opening bout was fine for the amount of time it was given, as I liked that Malenko stole the win from Guerrero to boost him up the division ranks.
Perry Saturn winning the WCW Television Championship is a fine decision as the fans really bought into him destroying Inferno. I think the reaction had to do a lot with how good Inferno has been getting under the fans skin as of late.
While Jericho’s win was a big surprise the beat down afterwards really killed the moment, I thought. If the beat down didn’t happen after the match like that, perhaps something greater could have been done. However, with the Jericho being dismantled afterwards it made it look like a fluke and nothing more than that.
The Hennig/Flair stuff has been the same thing going on for a couple weeks now. Since they seemingly can’t come up with anything new for the feud I can’t imagine it lasting after the pay per view.
Overall, it was a good show but slightly less enjoyable then what had been going on for the past month as I stated earlier. The build up towards Starrcade should be interesting.
Thanks for reading.
