FEEDBACK: WCW Nitro 6/30/1997

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Leave us your feedback and questions for this week’s edition of Rewind-A-Wai covering the June 30, 1997, episode of WCW Monday Nitro.

You can watch the 1h 36min show on WWE Network by clicking here.

The show will be out this Tuesday night for Patrons.

WCW Monday Nitro
Monday, June 30, 1997
Las Vegas, NV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena
*Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera for the Cruiserweight title
*Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero
*Steve Regal vs. Hector Garza for the Television title
*Super Calo vs. Psicosis
*Ric Flair, Steve McMichael & Chris Benoit vs. Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton & Masahiro Chono
*Mortis & Wrath vs. High Voltage
*Jeff Jarrett vs. Konnan for the United States title
*Kevin Nash vs. Rey Mysterio
*Lex Luger, The Giant & Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall

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Brandon from Oshawa

FINALLY!!! A WCW review. It feels like its been forever. This show was exactly what I love and what I want in a wrestling show. There was some great, fast paced action to start the show and then the pyro to start the 2nd hour(which I think is a great idea and I think AEW should do this). Then your big guns came out for the 2nd hour. Ending in a great cliff hanger, to make you want to tune into their next show.

This show proved why having a big stable is a good thing. You dont want to start throwing in nobodies and make it a joke, but a larger stable can help carry a show like this one. You had stuff on the lower card with Syxx & Jericho for the Cruiserweight title. The NWO midcarders with the Horsemen and then your main eventers feuding with the rest of WCW.

Hopefully it wont be so long until the next WCW review.

3 Likes
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Miles from Chicago.

This is my first time writing into to Rewind A Wai and excited to be a Patreon member. Your shows have all become a staple in my morning routine and excited to share a few thoughts about WCW Monday Nitro from June 97.

  • Just like the previous review - this is everything I want and love out of a wrestling show.
  • Where many fans will remember Vince or JR welcoming them to Monday Night Raw - Tony Schiavone opening up Nitro is that nostalgic voice for me - combine that with the WCW Monday Nitro intro, pyro and stage takes me back to that first year as a fan. Nothing better
  • First off - “MEAAAAAAN. WHOOOO. BY GOD GENE” I’ll never get tired of this pairing of Gene and Flair.
  • Great opening action with Jericho/Juvi and Eddy/Malenko. Amazing to watch Jericho as the Lionheart and know what he would grow to be as a wrestler and entertainer and still evolving today.
  • When I was 9 years old I thought Syxx/X-Pac was SO cool - what the hell was I thinking? Nothing screams 90s wrestling like T-shirts tucked into jeans.
  • Hollywood Hogan = my favorite heel of all time and a perfect pairing with Bischoff.
  • Scott Steiner could not be more unrecognizable during his interview with Rick on this show.
  • Mysterio/Nash should act as proof to any detractors to Marko Stunt that an undersized talent can be taken seriously and excite fans and that even in obvious defeat - it’s exciting to root for these type of characters.
  • Great cliffhanger ending. Not gonna lie - Sting coming down from the rafters and quickly unhooking that harness made me pretty nervous knowing what would happen to Owen in a couple years.

Overall, I could write about WCW for hours but this was such a great time to be coming up as a fan. Having not been exposed to wrestling until 1997 - much of the lows of WCW still felt as high as the highs and still do. My fondest wrestling memories are WCW related wether that be watching Nitro every week or playing WCW/NWO Revenge on a daily basis. There’s so much this show does right that could still be replicated today - post-match interviews, multiple angles going on at once, and an overall feeling of chaos where you can’t miss a minute of the show. This is something AEW has been doing well, especially with Moxley and the Inner Circle, but a tone that has felt missing from WWE for a long, long time.

Thanks for taking the time to review and hope there’s lots more WCW reviews to come!

1 Like
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Michael from Newfoundland.

This may be too late to write feedback but I decided to check it out as a palette cleanser from my weekly diet of AEW/nXt.

First a little side note on how I watched WCW in my youth. WCW was not popular in Newfoundland. I believe I was the only one among my friends who actively kept up with it. WWF Raw was live while WCW Nitro aired on 3:30 am Wednesday nights Newfoundland time. I’d set my VCR to tape it and watch it after school on Thursday.

I expected nothing from this show but it turned out pretty good. The majority of the card was filled with cruiserweight matches and the NWO were front and centre but they weren’t completely overbearing like they would be in 1998 and on-ward. Overall, I enjoyed it. But I have a soft spot for this era of WCW.

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Jake from Iowa

Amazing to see Ric Flair start the show with a promo in 1997 after seeing him cut one in 2019 to start Raw.

Also, this entire show was a showcase for Mean Gene with lots of promos. I looked forward to every time he was on screen, which is more than I can say when any of WWE interviewers show up.

The pacing was great in the first hour. Felt very frantic with Jericho/Syxx pull-apart finishing as Gene talks to Alex Wright, then Eddie jumps Dean and we’re off to the races again. Don’t change that channel!

That Rey Mysterio promo sounded like a Ricochet or Shorty G promo in 2019, which is not a compliment to anyone involved.

The Bischoff/Hogan stuff brought the show to a standstill after a frantic first half-hour. I appreciated them promoting Nash/Mysterio at least, and made me look forward to Mysterio falling in a “blaze of flames.”

Hit a lull here where there were some very suspect finishes but at least the matches were somewhat short.

Mortis was one of my favorite WCW wrestlers back in the day. The quick ringside promo into the camera afterward with Vandenburg is something that I miss from the WCW days.

Didn’t care for the Jarrett/Horsemen stuff, and Benoit had a hard time following Debra on the mic, which is not great.

Loved Tenay saying that Konnan was dragging Mysterio to safety, giving him the benefit of the doubt until the very last second. Great post-match angle that put over Konnan and garnered a lot more sympathy for Rey, a lot of concerned children in the front row.

Ending angle was great. WCW/NWO brawls were always a lot of fun, even if this one felt like they were filling a LOT of time so they could save the impact player reveal for the very last second.

NWO Sting was so obviously fake even back in 1997.

The ending angle created that confusion with the Stings, Hennig and Raven that made you want to come back. Every episodic wrestling show should be doing this, and yet the most prominent organization doesn’t even bother delivering the goods like this anymore, at least not consistently. Sad.

I rate this show seven Mean Gene ad-libs out of 10.

1 Like