The Monday Nitro Workrate Report
A weekly look at what did and didn't work on Monday Nitro by Dean Rasmussen
Monday, April 19th, 1999
BOY! That was quite a swanky Nitro.
What Worked
The Armstrongs fucking RULE and the Horsemen sell WAAAY too much for
them for their own good- but I don't care. The Armstrongs are the
fourth best tagteam in WCW and Benoit and Malenko respect them because
they can work- so you get a big big wad of quality wrestling presented
in front of toothless rubes in Gainesville en lieu of a shitty Nitro
squash- so I was ALL over this fountain of coolness. I was amazed at
the actual WORKRATE. This was like All Japan Women 1994 in pace at
points. Benoit was king-sized as the ass-stomping prick and Malenko was
adding to his heat machine resume as this was the best match on
Worldwide in many a moon. Steve Armstrong is one of the best workers in
WCW and this match showed you why. He can take a beating like a man,
hits all of his spots with verve and panache and sells like a king.
This match ruled it. Malenko was a machine and Arn had the quote of the
year- "Punish'em!"
After I was making with the unmanly whining for two weeks- and after
posting about Tenay ignoring Psicosis and Kaz Hayashi in his rundown of
top Cruiserweights in contention, WCW goes ahead and puts the belt on
Psicosis before said post could even pass moderation. WCW FEARLESSLY
gives the Cruiserweight Four-way what seems like 97 minutes and fries
the hot crowd like an catfish at a fishfry- so this was great but I
can't figure out why they tried in front of such a rube crowd. I
dunno. You definately needed enough time because you had a lot of work
to do- get Psic over as a real player, build up Blitzkrieg, position
Juventud as a challenger to Psic, protect the hell out Rey- so it needed
to be a Nitro virtual marathon and it was. In a perfect world Psic gets
the belt by going over Rey clean as a sheet after a lengthy feud as
opposed to pinning Blitzkreig after being invisible for since Eddy
rolled his Trans Am. Ah fuckit. Psic has the belt so I'm happy for
now. It won't be a long run, but Psic will lose his mask and get into
the thick of things and I'll get to watch him NOT job to everybody on
the roster. As for the match itself, Rey was over enough to drag most
of the crowd back into it whenever Juventud couldn't generate sufficient
heel heat by the end. It was weird mechanics when you analyze the work
by Psic and Juventud and how they worked the crowd perfectly in the
beginning and set-up all the spots perfectly. By the end, when the
rubes were restless and were not Sports Entertained anymore and they
realized they were actually watching wrestling, it was neat when Rey
knew to get some of the spent impatient crowd back into it with the
Bronco Buster spots to make sure the crowd didn't throw rocks and chum
at the ring by the time Psic got the pin. The highspots were CHOICE.
Rey and Blitzkreig couldn't get the Asai Moonsaults to go all stereo so
I think that's why Rey was busting Blitz up on the apron afterwards- as
a warning to all the other young green punks about trying to hang with
the big boys and fudge it up. Psic hits the SWANK~! Twisting Moonsault
Senton perfectly. This would have been the best four-way in WCW history
if they could have tightened up the finish, as they seemed to be milling
a bit before the wildly elaborate Wagneresque-in-length ending. The
question now is- will WCW try to break Rey and Kidman away from the
Cruiserweights and try to see if it will fly with Psic and Juventud as
the two top guys? Will they do the smart thing and keep Rey and Kidman
around as a credibility anchor- if not focus of the division? Either
way- Psic is a great choice if they want to keep Rey and Kidman around
the periphery: they can have a real face vs heel structure in those
matches and then switch back to bizarro Cruiserweight structure for the
non-Kidman/Rey matches. What they REALLY need is Eddy back to
orchestrate something heat gathering and THEN they can really do
whatever they want to with Rey and Kidman. Either way, Psic and
Juventud need to swap the belt a few times and maybe if they can get
Blitzkreig over enough, put the belt on him in a few months. The beauty
of the Blitzkreig scenario is that Psic and Juventud have been carrying
assorted Blitzkreigs ever since they were Hermanos Dinamitacitos back in
the late 70's. I was digging this.
Norton vs Steiner was very New Japan Heavyweight except they sold
more. This match was good what with the stiffness and suplexes and
powermoves- up until the amazingly shitty ending. The fact that Steiner
has decided not to stink in the ring makes his time on THE STICK that
much more amusing.
The actual match between Flair and Nash worked because Nash sold a
whole bunch before killing the hell out of Flair. Flair once again
bumps like a freak to get Nash over as a monster and thus continues
Flair's late career last-gasp resurgence. Flair is running out of jobs
that he can do before he is rendered totally useless in the eyes of the
US public so I question the hotshotting of Nash to quickly set-up he and
Page by going over Flair, especially after Paige stole Bret Hart's best
material in Page's very successful full heel turn later in the evening-
and thus, was generating heat to spare by the end. I guess Nash needed
to make up for the Goldberg loss before Superbrawl and this is one way.
I wish DDP wasn't so irritating because he's not afraid to deliver in
the ring. He and Goldberg are magic for some reason and this was a good
outing, as Goldberg hit his sports and DDP bumped like a latter day
Terry Funk. This wasn't as good as the GREAT match they gave away on
PPV because of the sloppiness, but it was effective in getting over the
full heel turn. Notice DDP TOTALLY botch the ref bump when he stops for
the phantom ref to grab his chair. A full heel turn equates to an
actual finish these days. Plus the fact that Goldberg kills the fudge
out of Nicky Jay- Tim Noel's least favorite referree- warrants a big fat
thumbs up.
What Didn't Work
Disco ain't feeling it these days and BUFF feels the urge to sell the
whole match like a Talented and VERY Rich man's Konan. They were
hanging by the skin of their teeth until they totally blew the ending
which sent them to this side of the page- since they had the psychology
of the match with DI working on the neck. Actually, the Neck In Danger
plot device just facilitates Buff laying around the ring, so DI can
figure out which of his three moves he's gonna use. WAAAY to stinky for
a Bagwell match. I blame DI the most.
The Flair Is Crazy Angle sucks it. Flair the evil bastard was just
starting to work really well and now they are going to ruin it by doing
an angle that's gonna turn Piper heel and confuse Flair's heel status?
YUCK! Plus, NO ONE wants to see the turdish Piper in the ring ever
again. I'd rather pop Cibernetico's backzits with my teeth.
Brian Knobbs is back! God, did he used to suck! Maybe he's better now
that he's away from his fellow mountain of STIIINNNK, Jerry Saggs. My
only question is- Why bring in a non-bumping turd like Knobbs for a
suddenly almost promising Hardcore Division, when you can resign Public
Enemy and get two guys who WILL at least bump? Sandman tried to bump
for two but the ONLY match where the Nasty Boys EVER looked good was
when Cactus Motherfucking Jack bumped for FOUR at Spring Stampede 1994.
Sandman has bumped his way into my heart while being carried by Bam Bam
the last couple of months but he ain't even in the same time zone as
Foley. So it doesn't bode well for the Turd That Is Knobbs.
THERE YOU HAVE IT.
DEAN RASMUSSEN.
http://mh106.infi.net/~dhracr/death.htm
