The Monday Nitro Workrate Report
A weekly look at what did and didn't work on Monday Nitro by Dean Rasmussen
Monday, July 6th, 1998
What Worked
Malenko and Booker T was really good. After the Feud That Will Not End
finally ends with Jericho and Malenko and if Booker T still has the belt,
they should REALLY let these two go at it. I think what WCW has found in
Booker T is the World's Largest New Japan Junior Heanyweight because Booker
T eats this style up. Or maybe it's the fact that Malenko, Finlay and
Benoit are really great wrestlers and Booker T is good enough not to get
smoked. Either way, it would be good, quality matches on free TV.
Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera have the best three minute match since
Juventud's Nitro debut as Psicosis does PHATTEST ASS SENTON ever and
Juventud kills the fudge out of Psicosis with the 1985 Ciclon Ramirez Tope
of Death. The Flock shows up to set up Juventud vs Kidman in their never
ending quest to make me compromise my ethics and order a PPV that has two
main events with more football and basketball players than actual wrestlers
(not that the wrestlers involved don't suck it themselves.) AW HELL! Rey
F*cking Misterio Jr is gonna be on it now! GOTTDAMMIT!
HEY! It's Magnum Lodi! WOO-HOO! The match sucked because- HEY!- it's
Public Enemy and GOLLY! they ain't good! But LOOK! It's Magnum Tokyo! And
it's really GOOFY! WOO-HOO!
Okay, Scotty Riggs dragged a watchable match out of Scott Putitinmyarmsky
(tm Punisher Tommy Rose) and the only person who has EVER done that is Eddy
Freakin Guerrerro so maybe this Riggs guy is a lot better than we give him
credit for. Cause none of this was Putski- though I'm a sucker for that
finisher ever since I first saw Al Snow do it WAAAAY back when. I never
wanted to see the Polish Hammer ever again. Nope.
Eh. It was a big match, Hogan worked stiffer than he EVER has, Goldberg
sold Hogan's comical offense and Hogan did his Ode To the Richard Belzer Hot
Properties Choke-Out Front Facelock (which REALLY put this in the win
column), so- sure it's wasn't anything I'd wanna see again ever- but it
wasn't the worst main event I've ever seen from WCW and Hogan jobbing clean
as a sheet was neat. And I'd be a lot more upset with the second stinking
rookie getting the belt in the last three years (HEY! Remember the Load of
Crap Called The Giant going over Flair clean as a sheet on Nitro way back
when?) if it would have affected the quality of WCW Main Events one iota
with it going from Hogan to ANYONE kicking around the top of WCW. I mean,
if it ain't going on Bret Hart, it ain't gonna matter. Actually, they could
do the super smart thing and have Goldberg drop the belt to Bret in Canada
in December. I'd pay to see that. Bring on the US Title Tournament. Let's
get that belt around a certain Canadian Crippler.
The Ultimo Dragon match was WAAAYY too short. They need to have their
actual workers get back into actual wrestling matches with actual finishes.
Dragon rules too much for this three minutes not to work but I hope this
reaming of the Dragon is gonna lead to something. Like an actual match that
means something with an ending.
Raven wasn't afraid to show why he may not be the best technical wrestler
but he isn't afraid to just LEAN INTO a punch and bump his ass off. Kanyon
is the same way so this was really good in an actual GOOD ECW brawl kind of
way. The Saturn run-in was neato also. Kanyon and Benoit in the first
round of the US Title tourney would be real fun.
What Didn't Work
Larry Zbysko does a truly embarrassing idiot ramble where he states- I'm
not kidding- that Goldberg is the pinnacle of Man's evolution. Well then- I
guess that makes Charles Haley a God because he was a GOOD defensive end.
Scott Hall versus Goldberg came so very close to working in my little world
of wrestling, but they just REALLY botched WAY too much stuff for it be
anything but the shits- though I noticed that I don't hate Goldberg when he
sells this much.
One really great Tornado DDT does not a match-that-works make. RASMUSSEN
now tires of Crazy Chavo and wants Good Wrestler Chavo to return. Ditto to
Great Wrestler Eddy.
Jim Neidhart really stinks. DDP's overness is really slipping when he gets
in the ring for the most part so DDP can't afford to mail it in these days.
Well! What do you know! DDP mails it in. If I have one apple and you have
one apple, how many do we have together?
Lex Luger and Sting couldn't think of anything for an interview so they
demonstrated their finishers. Oh yeah. There you go. Right there on TV.
Whip ass.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WCW is REALLY not afraid to just
pull our collective leg. The Giant and DUGGAN!?!?!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This was great. I loved the counter
to the Duggan kneedrop. "I'll just put my fist out and you run into it!"
"Sounds great, tough guy!" "Yeah, I saw it on Kids In The Hall once..."
"Whatever, Dude!"
THERE YOU HAVE IT.
DEAN.
