Welcome back to another edition of At Odds with Wrestling homework. Each and every week that the podcast assigns something wrestling related to watch, I jump in there with my own thoughts and feelings. I’m like a member of the team, but not. I’m Joe Pesci in the Lethal Weapon movies. 

This week’s assignment is a seemingly random episode of WCW Saturday Night. Once THE show for WCW, now a distant third behind Nitro and Thunder. Saturday Night now exists to show squash matches and up and coming talent. Somewhere in between modern day NXT and their LVL UP show. Plus a ton of highlights from the last week of WCW, which has already been covered in my own posts and over on the At Odds Patreon so I skipped writing about these segments yet again as I watched Saturday Night. 

According to the videos and graphics, apparently WCW Saturday Night is now a club show. Let’s dance, have some drinks, and put on TBS. Pre-Nitro, Saturday Night did feature some great contests and must see action. Now people are getting ready for hopefully a better spot much like most of the viewing audience is getting ready to go out for the weekend.

The announce team is Scott Hudson and Mike Tenay. I thought a Saturday Night taping took place at Universal Studios or a similar set up. But no! This was taped in Cape Giradeau, Missouri which apparently has had a few TV tapings in the past. I’m not seeing more than the one Saturday Night taping listed for this venue. Was this a one off? A house show turned taping because of all the chaos in WCW? It looks like 4 shows were taped this night, two Saturday Night episodes, and two WCW Worldwide. Well, Worldwide was 3 matches total to fit into the recap show. I forgot WCW did have a house show schedule at the time too. I missed my only chance to see WCW locally. Never saw ECW live either. Anyways…

Scott Armstrong vs Chavo Guerrero Jr (with his Amway briefcase).

No one is paying attention to this match. The announcers don’t call a bit of it. The piped in crowd noise is honestly distracting. There are two genuine moments of crowd cheer but more on that later. Chavo hits a tornado DDT for the win, and this is the only move in the entire match that the announcers call. They did have a lot of talk about a Cruiserweight tournament for the vacant title. Which actually does happen and doesn’t look horrible on paper. I’ll wait to see if that comes up in future homework assignments. 

Again, I go back to my own confusion over what took place when. This taping was on a Wednesday, and if I recall Thunder was taped on Tuesday and airing Wednesday. In theory everyone knew the new plan going forward. Also in theory, Tenay and Hudson could record their pieces talking about the crazy week in WCW. However, as crazy as it was, what if things changed yet again? I mean on Saturday WCW could say this was the truth as we knew it at the time. However, they recorded another episode of Saturday Night after which would have aired 1/29. I wonder if there were any specific things said in promos for that part of the show or if it was kept vague? Again, I’m going to wait to watch any of that in case it comes up later. 

As mentioned before, I’m skipping the Souled Out, Nitro, and Thunder recaps. Just look elsewhere on this site for my thoughts on those shows. 

Chris Harris (not yet a Wildcat) vs Buzzkill (with a blatant rip off of his brother’s entrance music).

This feels like a try out match for Harris. Not a match to build up Buzz, ole’ BK as a star. The announcers give this match much more attention than the previous one. I’m not sure if Buzzkill is meant to be a heel or a face here. He has this laid back can’t we all get along aura then smacks Harris. Against a regular jobber it wouldn’t matter how that B to the K-izzle aligns but Harris gets in so much offense these questions must be asked. That B-U-double Z (alright I’m done trying to copy his brother) hits a leg sweep he calls the buzzkiller for the win. 

Buff Bagwell reminds us to not wrestle in the backyard. This line could have been used for humorous fodder in the previous angle with Kimberly Page. 

Make sure to call the WCW Hotline! Or, slip Joe a couple bucks and ask the right questions. 

Fidel Sierra vs Meng.

Fidel is a known veteran I guess. Let me look him up. Oh, it’s the Cuban Assassin! I guess that’s not a 6:05 PM on TBS approved name. I wonder about these guys. Are they brought in just as enhancement talent? Were they in the area and showed up? Did someone cut them a break because they needed a pay day? Depending on the wrestler, probably all of the above. Much more competitive than I expected. Meng has a very slow DDT. Meng locks on the Tongan death grip and that drives Sierra to the mat for the pin. 

Mike Sanders vs Chuck Palumbo.

This is a fair 101 match. You guys got the basics down, now go out there in front of people and start getting your reps in. On that level it’s fine. Palumbo is beta testing Jungle Boy Jack Perry out here. The hair, the build, the tights. He’s just taller than Perry. Palumbo hits a jungle kick which should have been it but he doesn’t go for the finisher. He heads up top for a shoulder block and that gets the pin. Chuck looks like a future star here once he gets some experience. Actually Chuck looks like he should be in that sexy young stars group WCW tried to push. Remember the video where the four of them are walking and take off their shirts? Alex Wright, Renegade, Jim Powers, and Joe Gomez. I feel embarrassed when I remember this. 

Frankie Lancaster vs Al Green. 

Frankie is a journeyman jobber who I do not remember ever seeing before, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t. He also looks in his 50’s here. Playing “how old was this wrestler in this match” never disappoints. Al was a Master Blaster along with a young Kevin Nash way back when. Is he here because the new commissioner is getting his friends a paycheck? The announcers talk about what a victory on Saturday Night can do for someone. Nothing. I can’t think of a single time where someone got over on one of these extra enhancement shows and made their way up to being a featured player on Nitro or Thunder. Or even Raw or Smackdown. Frankie has a real sloppy crossbody press. Green with a suplex and is almost definitely holding down Lancaster for the pin. Is this a shoot? Did Frankie not want to stay down and Al stuffed him? It seemed like a bit of a forced pin. 

Bret Hart reminds us to leave the rough stuff to the pros. No one wants to get a career ending concussion from wrestling in the backyard. 

Ron Rage and Mikey Ray vs the Texas Outlaws. 

The Outlaws I’ve seen as the enhancement team of Disorderly Conduct. Rage and Ray are new to me and from the looks of it didn’t do much. I’ve also noticed while looking up many of these names, a lot of them had runs in WWC. Did Sierra get a group together and they all showed up at once to be used as talent? 

There are a lot of twin magic jokes throughout the match. Actually funny ones too. “Outlaw number 3.” “Where did number 2 go?” “I beg your pardon?” Maybe the most I’ve ever laughed at a Scott Hudson line. The Outlaws double team Ron while the referee is trying to get Ray back to his corner and then the masked men get the pin. The Outlaws grab a mic. Apparently Rage and Ray are being trained by Sid Vicious. The Outlaws call out Sid. There’s no way he’s appearing on a Saturday Night taping. Oh, he’s actually there. Sid comes out and takes out the Outlaws. He chokeslams one, powerbombs the other, and makes the pin. Sid cuts a promo on Nash and vows to be champion. Good thing this wasn’t taped weeks before. 

Elix Skipper vs Sonny Siaki. 

Hey, apparently the Demon will debut at SuperBrawl. Although, as I look through some tapings results I think he already showed up on Saturday Night before SuperBrawl. This reminds me the most of LVL UP. Siaki controls most of the match. He hits a Siaki-Drop/Unprettier to get the pin. Nothing much here. 

Mike Ashmore (with Ken Gibbons) vs Disco Inferno (with WCW tag team champions the Mamalukes).

These two guys look just like Rage and Ray. More Sid trainees? Were there three buses outside of the arena? One with the regular WCW talent, one with Sid’s guys, and one with Fidel’s WWC crew. Disco and the Mamalukes argue because he’s being silly and they want him to be serious. Disco hits Last Dance for the pin. Not much here either. 

3 Count come out and dance. Lex Luger and Miss Elizabeth come out. Lex gives 3 Count a chance to leave and then levels them. Lex cuts a long long promo. He’s not Lex anymore, he’s the Total Package. He hurt Sting because Lex hurt his arm years ago and Sting wasn’t there for him, so Lex (I mean Package) wants Sting to know what pain is. I want you to show me!!!!! Fun seeing another superstar of Lex’s level but what a long winded segment. 

Crowbar and David Flair (with Daffney) vs PG-13.

PG-13 try to rap to the ring but are attacked by their opponents during the entrance. Once in the ring, PG-13 with some very good heel work. Flair takes a good beating. Wolfie D misses a senton so Flair can tag out and his partner who can actually work comes in. Crowbar hits a moonsault on both JC Ice and Wolfie D’s legs. I think I got the names switched in my notes but let’s give this a try. Wolfie hits Crowbar with a hubcap. Flair hits JC with a crowbar. Crowbar pins JC. Wolfie is celebrating because he hears the bell and thinks PG-13 got the win after using the hubcap. Again, I may have those two guys switched around but the story remains the same. 

This was a perfectly fine casual wrestling show. I don’t mean for casual fans, although they might get something out of it too. I mean for hardcore wrestling fans this isn’t a bad thing to have on for two hours Saturday night while doing something else. Have it on the TV while making dinner, doing laundry, reading, or hanging out with friends. I wouldn’t cancel all my plans and pay close attention to them. But it’s not bad background programming from the Superstation.