WWE 24/7 Viewing of the Day

So I may have mentioned here before that I was really pumped up for the "Monday Nitro Tenth Anniversary Special." I mean, love it or hate it, the show DID produce a lot of memorable matches and moments during its 5 1/2 year run (which makes the "tenth anniversary" part kind of a lie, but whatever.... it was ten years ago today that Nitro first aired.

Unfortunately... that's all the special was: a replay of the first Nitro. What the hell? Coming from the company that RULES at putting together comprehensive nostalgia packages, you think they could have put something together better than THIS? A best of Nitro special could have made it to DVD. But this, without commercials, was maybe fifty minutes in length. Ugh.

They did have some new "footage", namely brief interview snippets from Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, Arn Anderson and Gene Okerlund commenting on that first night. Certainly not a thrilling retrospective, though.

The show itself (which I'd never seen before) was actually decent. LIVE! From the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. Only three matches aired (at least on this version) -- Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger, in which Pillman botched a ton of spots; Sting vs. Ric Flair in a great little contest, which featured interference by Arn Anderson; and Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bubba, which featured interference by the Dungeon of Doom and the returning Lex Luger.

The hosts for the first episode were Bischoff, Heenan and Steve McMichael. Mongo was pretty horrible -- calling Heenan "Bobby The Hernia" and "Bobby The Stain", though Heenan was a little off, too, asking McMichael why he hadn't even won a Super Bowl ring. Of course, he had, which made the moment a little awkward.

There was an interview with Hulk Hogan at his food court restaurant called PastaMania. I swear the promo sounded pretty much like this: "Brother, PastaMania is running through all these Hulkamaniacs, brother. It's Hulkamania. It's PastaMania. Hulkamania. PastaMania. HulkaPastaMania! Brrrrother!" You also saw a pre-filmed vignette of Mr. Wall Street, who made a unmemorable reference to his then-recent stint as IRS.

The only other angle development (besides Luger's return and the Anderson-Flair feud) was Scott Norton coming to ringside and demanding a match. Heenan ran out of the way and helpfully pointed out that Bischoff was in charge of making matches (hilarious!). Eventually, Randy Savage made it to ringside, setting up for a bout on next week's Nitro.

As I said, nothing spectacular, but a decent taste of Nitro Nostalgia. But certainly not what I was expecting, or hoping for.