Raw 176

Bob Backlund and the Iron Sheik’s new protege The Sultan debuts tonight against Jake the Snake. I’m not sure what to make of him. He can’t talk because Saddam Hussein cut out his tongue or something so that's probably going to make it difficult for him to get over. Anyway when Jake is distracted by Jerry Lawler, the Sultan gets him in the Camel Clutch (a move taught to him by the Iron Sheik) and earns a win in his first WWF match.

The Sultan, AKA Middle Eastern Shredder.

Kevin Kelly tells us that the WWF has a new show premiering this weekend called “LiveWire” that will be hosted by Jim Cornette and Sunny and will allow viewers to call in to the show live on air. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I assume it will just be Cornette and Sunny alternatively flirting with each other and berating teenagers.
Gorilla Monsoon comes in to inform us that, contrary to what JR told us, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall will not be returning to the WWF any time soon. I noticed that Gorilla specifically uses their real names while JR only uses their ring names. I'm sure this is by design.
The final two semi-final matches for the Intercontinental Championship tournament take place with Marc Mero defeating Owen Hart (using Owen’s own fake cast against him) and Farooq winning via DQ against Sid when Sid used the steel chair that Farooq brought into the ring against him.

Nitro 53

We’re coming off of Fall Brawl where it was revealed that the Sting that attacked Lex Luger was actually an imposter. On the surface this seems like good news for WCW, but because of the lack of trust shown and the accusations leveled against Sting, he’s declared himself a free agent who’s on nobody’s side and informs anyone who doubted him that they can “stick it”.
Later we see that the 123 Kid is in the audience. Obviously a new nWo member is incoming. Thankfully Nitro doesn’t tease it out too long as later in the program we see the Kid push a big red button on a comically large remote control that causes thousands and thousands of nWo propaganda leaflets to fall from the rafters as nWo henchmen parade around the crowd carrying pro-nWo picket signs. Eric Bischoff informs us that since the nWo won War Games last night, WCW’s been forced to give them their own show. That’s an interesting development.

That remote is so big it's the only thing he was able to fit in his fanny pack.

Randy Savage is the last big name left on WCW’s side and it seems that he’s gone completely crazy. As Scott Norton comes down the ramp to face him, Savage rushes at him and begins raining blows down before the bell has a chance to ring. He eventually takes a steel chair and hits Norton three big shots to the head. The ref tries to stop him but gets shoved by Randy who leaves the ring area looking like a total psychopath.
And finally, after a long wait, Glacier makes his Nitro debut. After months of buildup I don’t even know what I could hope to expect. He takes on Big Bubba and the ring is bathed in blue light for the duration of the match while snow falls before and after. At the very least, they’ve decided to go all in on the guy.

Verdict: Nitro continues to build the nWo up. They know that they’ve got something hot and are wisely pushing them. It’s sad that it all started by WWF losing two of its top guys. I’m not sure that Raw has anything even close to competing with them now.

Winner this week: Nitro

Score to date: Nitro 36, Raw 13

(Television Ratings: Raw - 2.1; Nitro - 3.7)