Hog Wild '96

Legacy Review

Hog Wild '96

August 10, 1996 from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

After having mixed at best results with holding Bash at the Beach '95 on an actual beach (great looking location, horrible wrestling, massively inflated claimed attendance), we're once again heading outdoors for a PPV, this time for WCW's first ever August PPV and the first of what would be regular trips the next few years to the famous Sturgis Rally. The years after this would be named Road Wild instead of Hog Wild. Not being a motorcycle guy at all myself, this location does less than nothing for me. Bischoff and Hogan were both motorcycle guys though, so here we are. The crowd in attendance are all rally attending bikers using their bikes as seats which leads to an....interesting atmosphere. They've also already sat through a full show of wrestling, with WCW holding a 2 hour, 8 match live edition of WCW Saturday Night on TBS just before the PPV started. Location uniqueness aside, this would be a big show anyway as it's the first PPV after the monumental events of Bash at the Beach '96 and the formation of the NWO, who've continued to terrorize WCW since. Rumors are rampant that, in a logical progression of the story, a possible 4th man may be joining the group tonight.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Mysterio Jr (c) def Ultimo Dragon (w/Sonny Oono) in 11:35- Mike Tenay joins the booth for this match. The red hot Mysterio defeated Dean Malenko for the title on the Nitro after Bash at the Beach. In the start of what would become a major show tradition, Mysterio is in Spider-Man gear tonight. Cautious start with Dragon swinging a kick and a couple of mat stalemates. Mysterio armdrags out of an armbar and puts on a modified cloverleaf. Dragon works over into a cruicifix for 2. There's a non-PG doll being tossed around by the crowd. Didn't I see her win the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship a couple of times? I'm sure someone from Turner took care of that real quick. Mysterio slides under Dragon, but Dragon quickly catches him with a spinning heel kick. Long counter run, both guys go for springboard moonsaults and land on their feet, takedowns, and stalemate. Dragon hits some rapid fire kicks and a dropkick. Great Muta-style handspring elbow. Ligerbomb from Dragon! For some reason he doesn't go for a pin. Bold strategery, Cotton. Instead Dragon puts on a figure four with no prep work. Mysterio slowly gets to the ropes for a break, then goes outside to shake it off. Tenay mentions the recent J-Crown tournament in New Japan, saying Dragon defeated Jushin Liger in two and a half minutes (true) and inaugural WCW Cruiserweight champ Shinjiro Otani (also true), but he fails to mention that Dragon lost in the final to The Great Sasuke. Back in Dragon puts Mysterio into a kind of torture rack and airplane spins him a bit. Heenan calls it a "coat hanger", which is worth a chuckle. He drops Mysterio down and again doesn't go for a cover. Surfboard from Dragon. Mysterio escapes into a cover for 2. Dragon goes for another handspring elbow but Mysterio dodges. Springboard dropkick to Dragon's back that sends him to the floor. A baseball slide sends Dragon off the platform the ring is on and all the way down into the dirt. Mysterio dive all the way down there! Man, someone on WCW's production team needs to be smacked upside the head with a wet fish for missing almost all of that. Back in Mysterio hits a hurricanrana off the top rope. He tries another springboard but Dragon counters with a dropkick. Dragon plancha! Back in Dragon hits a German suplex for 2. Springboard moonsault. Moonsault off the top for 2. He goes for another Ligerbomb. Mysterio counters into a hurricanrana. Dragon blocks a super hurricanrana off the top. Mysterio goes for it again, hits it, and gets the pin. Good match, but spotty and missing something. Neither guy seemed very comfortable working in this atmosphere. ***

Tonight's hotline shill: Mean Gene has names of non-WCW wrestlers that have been seen wandering around backstage at Hog Wild, and ANY OF THEM could be the NWO's fourth guy.

 

Scott Norton def Ice Train in 5:05- Fire & Ice explode! I'll give you a couple of days to try to find someone that cares. Train is walking in with a taped up shoulder, his own fault because for some reason he decided to get lippy with the Giant during the preshow. After an initial back and forth slugfest I'll summarize the majority of the match: Norton works the hurt arm, Train pounds back with the good one, Norton goes back to the hurt arm, rinse and repeat. After a powerslam/clothesline flurry from Train, Norton hits an arm slam, puts on as much of a Fujiwara armbar as he was capable of, and Train submits. 1/2*

Heenan's running gag about expecting the bike rally to be all bicycles is pretty damn funny. It'd be nice if Dusty actually let him finish a joke instead of constantly shooting them down.

 

Madusa def Bull Nakano (w/Sonny Oono) in 5:21- This is billed as the "Battle of the Bikes". Oono comes in riding a bike rather than Nakano, while "bike enthusiast" Medusa is on hers. What makes this a "Battle of the Bikes"? No idea. I guess we're just supposed to know. WCW was horrendous about explaining these things before matches sometimes. The ref has a sledgehammer. Did he take that from Oono? While they're arguing Nakano attacks Medusa with nunchuks and tosses her around by the hair. Arrogant one foot cover from Nakano, followed by a clothesline. Tony starts to explain the bike thing, apparently the winner of this match gets to smash the loser's bike with that sledgehammer, but barely gets into the explanation before Dusty interrupts him about something completely different. Dusty is not having a good night, he's stepping all over everyone. Medusa comes back with slingblades for 2. Nakano tries for a Scorpion Death Lock, then settles for stretching Medusa out. Top rope DDT for 2. Medusa messes up Nakano's spiked hair while in a chinlock! I'm 100% certain that was a rib between these two longtime rivals/friends. Medusa hits a hurricanrana for 2. Spinning heel kick. Nakano dodges a second and hits a big clothesline. Medusa German suplex! That gets a 2 count. Nakano hits a back suplex with a bridge for 2. Medusa sunset flip for 2. Another back suplex from Nakano with all four shoulders down. Medusa gets a shoulder up as the ref counts 3. Nakano thinks she's won and gets the sledgehammer. She takes a shot on the seat of Medusa's bike. Medusa goes out to save it, gets the sledgehammer, and starts wailing away on Oono's bike. Doing almost no damage. You know bonus level 1 in Street Fighter II when you can rip apart a car in 20 seconds? This is the opposite of that. Finally Medusa tips the bike over in frustration, hits it again with the sledgehammer, and manages to get one small piece of fiberglass off. Good enough I guess. The match wasn't nearly on the same level as the classics these two put on in the past. 3/4*

Backstage in the Compuserve room, the Steiners try to use computers. It goes as well as you'd expect.

 

Chris Benoit (w/Woman and Elizabeth) def Dean Malenko in 26:55- Jimmy Hart is with Malenko on his entrance. They seem to agree on something and Hart walks off. I think it's some kind of agreement with the Dungeon of Doom to take Benoit out but, again, commentary never explains. Dusty would probably only interrupt it anyway. They jaw a bit after the bell before Benoit grabs a quick takedown. Extended intense back and forth brawling opens things up. After a few minutes of that Malenko hits the first big move, a delayed suplex for 2. Neckbreaker/elbow drop combo. Benoit gets some more beatdown in, hits a legdrop and big chops. He tries for a knucklelock leverage pin. Malenko bridges and kips up, kicking off a crazy great rapid fire cradle tradeoff for near falls. They have a bit of difficulty with the bridge up spot. Some more crazy counters follow, then a much smoother bridge up spot and Malenko gets a backslide for 2. Hiptoss from Malenko into a short arm scissors. Benoit uses it to lift him up and drop him down. The Shawn Michaels/British Bulldog spot, they worked that into every one of their matches. Snap suplex from Benoit. Abdominal stretch, with a tights pull. Malenko spins around to armdrag out. Another slugfest with haymaker swinging. Speed run and simultaneous crossbody collision! Malenko flips over the top rope, goes up top, but Benoit blocks the double ax handle and hits another snap suplex. The headbutt off the top hits! Malenko kicks out! Benoit goes for a tombstone but Malenko reverses and hits it for 2. Malenko gets a boot up in the corner and goes for the Cloverleaf. Benoit small packages him for 2. Crossbody against the ropes from Malenko and they tumble over the top to the floor. Benoit gets posted. They go up top and Benoit hits a superplex. With a huge snap that caused him to hit his own head on the landing. HUGE release German suplex from Malenko! He let Benoit go right at the apex, absolutely perfect. Benoit gets a flash small package for a long 2. Short clothesline for 2. Malenko ducks, hits a clothesline, bounces off the ropes and falls on Benoit for 2. Belly to belly suplex from Malenko for 2. Benoit northern lights suplex for 2. German for 2. 5 minutes left call. Benoit puts on a high angle Walls of Jericho style Boston crab. 4 minutes left. A back elbow sends Malenko to the floor. Benoit plancha! Gedo clutch from Benoit back in for 2. 3 minutes left. Malenko blocks a German into a roll up for 2. Backslide fight that Malenko wins for 2. Benoit powerbomb for 2. 1 minute left. One minute? What happened to 2? Penzer counts worse than the self-destruct system on Spaceball One. Malenko hits a superplex for 2 at 30 seconds left. Oklahoma roll for 2. Powerbomb for Malenko, but the bell rings for the time limit. Ref Nick Patrick says there must be a winner and orders a 5 minute overtime. Benoit jumps Malenko from behind and hits a back suplex for 2. Tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. Benoit puts Malenko in the Cloverleaf! He drags Malenko to the center of the ring, but Malenko refuses to submit so Benoit lets go. 3 minutes left. Again. Malenko hits an enzuguri. Head collision and both guys are down. 2 minutes left. Hey, Penzer figured out which one was 2! Benoit puts on a legbar. Malenko escapes and gets Benoit in a small package, but again the bell rings for the time limit. Patrick says there absolutely positively must be a winner, so we're going to DOUBLE OVERTIME! If there must be a winner why are we faffing around with time limits and not just saying we go until there's a decision? The biker moron crowd boos the call to keep going, but they've been barely paying attention to this awesome wrestling anyway. Malenko tries to catch Benoit with an eye poke. Backdrop from Benoit. Malenko hits a dragon screw leg whip. Benoit ducks a clothesline and hits a dragon suplex for 2. He goes for another. Malenko escapes, switches, Malenko tries to roll Benoit up but Benoit stacks him up for 2. Malenko dodges a dropkick. The Coverleaf is on! Malenko switches it over into an STF. Woman tries to get in. Malenko grabs her arm. Benoit rolls Malenko up, puts a foot against the rope and gets the pin. Tremendous wrestling, which is no less than you'd expect from these two, but the booking with all the overtimes was pretty dumb and the finish was anti-climatic after all that, and that hurt the match. It would have played much better in front of a crowd that actually cared about, y'know, wrestling. ***3/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (c) (w/Col. Robert Parker and Sister Sherri) def The Steiner Brothers in 17:53- The biker crowd is immediately all over Harlem Heat. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why. Scott and Booker start. Or try to. Heat is still getting into it with the crowd. Now everyone's revving their motorcycle engines while Heat stalls on the floor. Finally Scott and Booker get going when Scott attacks Booker from behind. Double underhook powerbomb. Ray runs in and takes a suplex. Rick Steinerline! Heat roll out while the Steiners strike their pose and the crowd is as happy as they've been all night. Back in Scott and Booker do a long speed/counter sequence ending with Scott hitting a press slam. Mounted punches and Booker rolls out again. Rick and Sherri get into it a bit. Ray tags in and Heel 101s Scott down to huge boos. Scott hits a northern lights suplex. Rick tags in. More speed, Rick hits the ropes really bad, his head almost went under, and hits a Steinerline. Booker hits a side suplex on Scott. Scott belly to belly for 2. Rick blocks a Booker suplex and hits one. He shouts "Shut up bitch!" to Sherri, which gets a big pop. Ray hits Rick from behind on the apron to send Rick Steiner in peril. For a minute at least. Rick catches Booker leapfrogging and powerslams him for 2. Tag to Scott. He puts Booker in an STF. Ray breaks it up. After Rick tags back in Ray pulls the top rope down on him, sending Rick tumbling to the floor and in peril again. Ray gives him a big boot on the floor and posts him. Sherri gets a small bit of revenge with a back rake. Watch it, Hogan's a heel now, that's his big move and he doesn't like other people stepping on his stuff. Booker misses a kick and gets tangled in the top rope. Rick knocks him down to the floor, but can't get the tag and Ray is back on him. Bicycle kick. The lights come on as the sun starts going down. Ray chinlock with arm drops. Booker does the elbow miss spinaroonie and hits a swing kick. Ray backbreaker and suplex for 2. Rick dodges a Booker kneedrop off the second rope and gets the hot tag to Scott. Steinerlines for everybody. DONNYBROOK! Both Parker and Sherri get powder ready. Parker accidentally throws his into Booker's face, but fortunately for them they had Sherri as a backup and she gets Scott with it. Parker hits Scott over the head with his cane, and Booker covers for the pin. That is not a popular result in Sturgis, no sir. There's so much trash being thrown you'd think the NWO was already out there. Pretty nothing match, but I'll give them a small bump for pulling off that semi-complex finish without making a big mess of it, a rarity in WCW tag matches. *3/4

We get footage of people riding motorcycles, as well as other shots of various bike rally goings on. WCW's really going all in on this.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Woman and Elizabeth) def Eddie Guerrero in 14:17- Flair's got a sweet ice-themed white robe tonight. I don't remember ever seeing that one before or after this show. Seeing him with the US belt on is so weird. If WCW wasn't so hell bent on pushing Giant to the moon they could easily have kept the World title on Flair to drop to NWO Hogan, would have been a hell of a dynamic flip and probably been a pretty fun match. We get some pre-bell shoving. Lockup stalemate to start and Flair gives us a WOOOOO. Huge Flair bump off a shoulderblock. Guerrero shoves and Flair bumps off those too, then Flair gets shovey with the not Tommy Young ref. Guerrero slap and Flair bumps off that! He rolls out to recover. Great start. Flair takes his time getting back in. Since the sun set that chopper they're using to get the overhead shots has gotten extra loud. Speed run and they have a couple of pretty bad and ugly miscommunication botches. Both guys end up down and Guerrero rolls out to possibly legit shake something off. We've gotten the good and the bad so far in this match. Corner chop exchange and Flair rolls out again. Back in Guerrero does the rope walk headlock floatover. Flair tries to pull hair but Guerrero kips up off it. Chops stagger Flair. Backdrop and Flair begs off. The lights go out! Hey, have all the bikers turn the headlights on their bikes on and we can have an impromptu CZW show. Flair gets an eye poke and chop, and goes into slow beatdown mode as the techs work to get the ring lit again. Guerrero fires back in the corner and hits mounted punches. Flair Flip! Guerrero dropkicks Flair off the apron! Flair gets back in and Guerrero 360 clotheslines him right back out. More Guerrero chops set off a HUGE Flair Flop. Flair eye poke. The women have the ref distracted and Flair gives Guerrero a low blow. Guerrero hits a crossbody for 2. Sunset flip off the top. Flair tries to counter punch but Guerrero dodges it. Drop toe hold from Guerrero and he puts on a figure four! Flair takes a near fall, then gets to the ropes. Guerrero knucklelocks Flair, then breaks out some lucha by leaping up to the top rope and coming off with a hurricanrana! Another chop exchange. Guerrero DDT for 2. Flair begs off again and Guerrero mocks his strut a bit. Eye poke from Guerrero! He goes up top and hits the frog splash! But he hit his knee on the way down! Uh oh. After a couple of counters Flair hits a HUGE clothesline, then slaps on the figure four. He gets both rope and Woman leverage help. Guerrero's shoulders go down and he gets pinned! Like their run in Slamboree's Lethal Lottery matches there were some communication issues, but both guys were way too talented to let that get in the way of a good match. ***1/2

 

The Outsiders def Sting and "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 14:36- Re: my point with Flair above, if they had kept the tag belts on Sting and Luger just a bit longer the NWO could have all walked out with gold tonight. Would have been the right call. The classic NWO music makes its PPV debut. The bikes are getting revved again. The crowd finally wakes up fully for these last two matches, but still it would have been a much better atmosphere for both of them if they were in front of real wrestling fans. The Outsiders do rock paper scissors and Hall starts with Luger. Sting gets a toothpick flick before they get going. Ref Nick Patrick has to force a break on the lockup. Hall does some arm work on Luger with a couple of takedowns and bragging about it after. Luger blocks and hits a hiptoss. Kneelift and slam. Ultra super mega cocky Nash wants in and gets the tag. But he doesn't want Luger, he wants Sting. He spits on Sting! Sting tags in. They stare down. One Nash punch floors Sting. A Sting punch staggers Nash. Nash blocks a slam. Sting goes into stick and move mode and gets some traction. After an eye poke Sting gets the slam on Nash. He knocks Hall off the apron. Nash catches Sting leaping in the corner and drops him with snake eyes. Hall gets a return shot in as Sting goes in peril. The NWO keep Sting trapped in their corner with Nash doing his patented corner knees and elbows. Short clothesline from Nash. Hall catches a crossbody and hits the fallaway slam. The NWO continue the good teamwork to keep Sting isolated and working Luger in to double team. Can't fault it. Sting manages to slowly chop Nash down but the tag is blocked. Midring collision and Sting does his "accidental" fall into Nash's groin that you can see coming a mile away he's done it so often now. Hall cuts the tag off. Nash hits a big boot. Hall does the Diesel fist pump from the apron, wanting the jackknife. But Nash does the Razor Ramon pose, tells Hall to go ahead and finish it and tags him in. Hall hooks Sting up for the Razor's Edge. Sting backdrops out and gets the tag to Luger. Luger cleans house. Sting runs in and Stinger Splashes Nash! They brawl on the floor and Sting hooks Nash up in the Scorpion Death Lock. While that's going on, in the ring Luger has Hall set up for the Torture Rack. But when he lifts Hall, Patrick takes a shot in the head. Patrick falls down into Luger's knee, knocking him down! Hall covers and Patrick does a fairly fast count for three! What the hell? Patrick is still holding his head as he raises the Outsiders' hands. Solid formula tag stuff, with the added historical importance of being early in the NWO angle and kicking off Nick Patrick's evil referee arc. Should have been for the tag titles though. **3/4

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hollywood Hogan def The Giant (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) in 14:56- They're still getting Hogan's heel look down. These two worked a lot together when Giant was first getting going and all the matches were abominably awful (while guys like Sting and Flair were actually carrying Giant to decent matches), let's see if a role reversal helps any. MEGA stall to end all stalls from Hogan to start the match. When the bell rings Hogan is halfway up the aisle. He slowly works his way back in. Giant no sells punches and Hogan goes right back out. Hogan's constantly shouting at fans to "shut up", clearly making sure they get that he's supposed to be the bad guy now. Back in Hogan tries to shoulderblock Giant, bounces off, and he's out again. Giant back suplexes out of a headlock and guess what? Yup. Larry Zbyszko is taking notes on how to stall more from this match. When Hogan gets back in he tells Giant to bring it, then hides in the ropes. Giant grabs him anyway and the not Nick Patrick ref pulls him off. Yet more stalling. They slooooooooooowly knucklelock into a test of strength. That goes on forever. After about an hour relative time Giant grabs a top wristlock. Hogan hair pulls into an ARMBAR. Another hour of arm work and hair pulling follows. Giant fights out with headbutts and Hogan falls out to the floor. He pulls Giant out with him and posts him. Back rakes! Hogan's #1 heel offensive move. Giant blocks another post shot and posts Hogan. Back in Giant does the corner whip/gut kick combo that he did like 500 times in their previous cage match. Backbreaker. Slam, and the follow up elbow drop mises. Giant no sells punches. HE'S HULKING UP ON HOGAN! POINT! Three chops. Big boot! Giant calls for the chokeslam. The Outsiders are out. Hall runs in and gets taken out. Chokeslam on Hall! Nash tries a megaphone shot and gets cut off. Chokeslam on Nash! Hogan has the belt. He whacks Giant with it, covers and gets the pin and the title for the NWO! Commentary is aghast, flummoxed and generally horrified. Welcome to the next two years of WCW main events. The role reversal didn't help any as this was just as bad as their previous matches, moving at a sub-glacial pace for most of it as Hogan was working out how to work as a heel for the first time ever with a significant audience, and his solution seemed to be stall, stall and more stall. But no matter how bad it was, it's hugely important in WCW history. 1/4*

After the bell the NWO celebrate. Brutus Beefcake/The Booty Man/Zodiac/The Man With No Whatever/etc etc comes out with a giant birthday cake for Hogan, and wearing an NWO shirt. Hogan takes the mic. He brags about winning the title for the NWO, then calls Flair out for how emotional he got when the NWO took Arn Anderson out. Hogan says they never mix business and friendship. Then he puts Beefcake over as his best friend he's been hanging with for the past 20 years, then says the NWO will never make the mistake of mixing business and friendship. He says something to Nash....and the NWO attack Beefcake! Guess he's not the fourth guy after all. Hogan finishes him off and they toss the trash out. Afterward Hogan says that if he's willing to do that to his best friend for the sake of business, what will he do to Flair? By the way, while all this is going on the Giant is still laying down napping in the exact same spot he landed in from the belt shot. Nash finds the present that was stuck in the cake. Hogan tears it open. It's a can of black spraypaint! Hogan opens it up and in another iconic moment, for the first time sprays the NWO letters onto the world title belt. Another new low as far as commentary is concerned. End show.

 

Word is, Sean Waltman was scheduled to debut on this show as the 4th man in one or the other of the NWO matches, but WWF got tricky with his release papers and Bischoff didn't want to risk anything as he was still a bit gun shy of Vince's lawyers after implying that Hall and Nash were still working for WWF when they first debuted. Instead, Ted DiBiase in his WCW debut would be revealed as the 4th man and the NWO's money man the next week on Nitro.

Years later, when archaeologists unearthed the buried remains of WCW's trips to and shows from the ancient motorcycle metropolis of Sturgis, the Giant was still lying there.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another roller coaster show bouncing back and forth between quality matches and not so good ones. The crowd as a wrestling crowd was pretty awful, but there must have been a lot of money exchanged because WCW would come back to Sturgis regularly afterward. The last two matches are crucial if you're watching through the history of the NWO, especially the main event no matter how bad the actual match was.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+