Jim Ross: "Hello wrestling fans and welcome to this week's episode of Nitro! You seen the mintage at the top of the hour...... The Open tournament begins next week. And right here tonight, your going to see WCW's entrants as they prepare for that monumental event. Not only that, but your going....." Ross is interrupted by the appearance of The Pinnacle..... MJF, Steve Williams and Terry Gordy!
MJF: "If its tag teams you want to talk about..... look no further than the #1 ranked tag team in the world..... the WCW Tag Team champions....... the team that will win The Open..... Dr. Death Steve Williams and Terry Gordy! They know everything there is when it comes to tag team wrestling. And unlike that traitor, Wardlow, they also know about loyalty! Think about it people.... I made Wardlow! Gave him a spot in the greatest faction in all of wrestling.... The Pinnacle! And he couldn't handle it! It all went to his head. I guess you could say that Wardlow is the Antonio Brown of professional wrestling!
And speaking of factions.... the Horsemen decided to make another return last week and once again put their noses in Pinnacle business. Didn't you old fossils learn at War Games? We sent you out to pasture after that. The next time you get in our business.....it's straight to the glue factory!" This brings out The Horsemen!
The Horsemen storm the ring and its nothing short of a pier six brawl. Flair goes right after MJF while Doc and Gordy fight with Arn and Tully. It doesnt take long for the action to spill all over the arena as security do their best to stop it heading into break.
***COMMERCIAL BREAK ***
As we return from break it's announced by Jim Ross on commentary that Eric Bischoff has signed our Main Event for the night..... Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard challenge Steve Williams and Terry Gordy for the WCW Tag titles!
Match One: Sammy Guevara vs Dean Malenko (Match 3 in Best of Seven) They face off in the ring to get started. Malenko shoves him down to the mat, but Guevara comes back with a shoulder block. He locks Malenko in a headlock and punches the top of the head for good measure. Malenko is thrown into the ropes, and he takes Guevara out with a shoulder block that sends him to the outside. Guevara rolls back in the ring, but is met with a kick to the midsection and gets stomped on in the corner. Malenko hits a Brainbuster and talks some smack before slapping Guevara in the face. Sammy gets back to his feet and takes Malenko into the corner. He hits some shots to the head and stomps away on him as JR and Venturadiscuss the fact that Sammy doesnt want to fall three falls down in this series. Guevara throws Malenko into the other corner, but gets lifted and dropped on the top turnbuckle. He takes Guevara down to the mat with a suplex. Malenko has a single leg crab locked on. He tosses Guevara over the top rope. Guevara counters an attack that has Malenko on his back after a suplex. Guevara talks some trash back to Malenko before starting to hit some punches to the head. Guevara hits a dropkick to the knee and starts to work exclusively on it. Guevara comes off the top with another move to the knee and stomps down on it. He leaps over the top rope and hits a senton on the vulnerable part of the leg. Guevara locks him in a leg hold which he turns into an STF that has Malenko riving in pain.
Guevara sends Malenko to the outside and slams his head against the guardrail. He throws Malenko into the post and continues to stomp away on the knee. Malenko reverses another whip into the guardrail and throws Guevara into them instead. They both slowly make their way back into the ring with Guevara hitting a dropkick on the knee again. He locks on the Figure Four and grabs the ropes for leverage. Malenko fights with a rake of the eyes, but Guevara is quickly back to his feet. He hits Malenko with multiple uppercuts and a high knee. Guevara hits a back elbow and goes out to the apron and goes for his senton, but Malenko rolls out of the way. Guevara comes back with a Baseball Slide while Malenko was on the outside trying to catch his breath. Guevara comes out off the top, but Malenko moves and he hits nothing but guardrail. Malenko rolls him back in the ring, but is slow to get in himself. Malenko with a boot, and some shots to the head. He works Guevara into the corner and puts on a wristlock that takes both men down to the mat. He lets up and brings Guevara to his feet, but is met with a backbreaker. Guevara hits a powerbomb and floats over for a near fall. Malenko goes for a backbreaker himself, but Guevara fights out. Malenko hits a low blow, but as he goes to capitalize, Guevara rolls him up for two. Malenko climbs to the top rope and hits a frog splash, but picks him up at two. Malenko goes for a powerbomb, but Guevara counters it with a headscissors. Powerslam by Malenko grabs a near fall. Malenko hits a German Suplex and covers for a two. Guevara recovers and hits a Tornado DDT, 1.....2.......3!! Guevara gets his first win of the series!
***COMMERCIAL BREAK ***
Match Two: Wardlow vs "Iron" Mike Sharpe Wardlow quickly hit a knee to Sharpes midsection followed by a powerbomb once the bell rang. He continued to hit four more powerbombs and then scored the victory in 24 seconds!
Jim Ross: "Bygawd fans..... Wardlow doesn't get paid by the hour. And he makes quick work of a season veteran in Mike Sharpe! This young man has worked his way up the rankings and is now the #1 contender to MJF's IWA X Division title! And you just know that doesnt sit will with the champion!" ***COMMERCIAL BREAK ***
We come back from break and see Triple H arriving at the arena.
The Game makes his way through the venue and looks to be heading to the ring when out of nowhere he is jumped by Samoa Joe!
Joe pummels HHH then throws him up against the wall of the building. Joe takes a chair and nails Hunter with it then kneels down over HHH and tells Hunter he should be careful what he wishes for..... he just might get it!
Match Three: Chris Adams & Terry Taylor vs Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell The two team go at each in a scientific encounter for around 6 - 7 minutes then out comes Gino Hernandez to the corner of Adams and Taylor. Gino asks them how do they expect to win The Open tournament wrestling like that. Adams hits a suplex on Blair then tags in Adams who takes Gino's advice and begins wrestling dirty. Taylor hits the 5 Arm on Blair then covers Blair and puts his feet in the ropes for added leverage to get the win. The ref raises the arms if Adams and Taylor as Adams looks on confused and Gino smiling on the outside in approval.
***COMMERCIAL BREAK ***
Match Four Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody vs Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) Hansen and Brody storm the ring before the bell can ring but does it really matter? They just beat the piss out of Badd Company. Hansen hots Tanaka with a lariat then Brody delivers a jumping knee to Tanakas head to get the pinfall. As the replay is being shown Hansen grabs the housemic.....
Stan Hansen: "ME AND BRODY HERE HAVENT TEAMED UP IN A WHILE. BUT WHEN WE DO, ITS JUST LIKE OLD TIMES..... AND SOMEBODY IS GONNA GETT THEIR BUTTS KICKED! THERES A TEAM RUNNING AROUND HERE WEARING THOSE IWA WORLD TAG TITLES! WELL VADER..... BIGELOW.... YOU TWO WANNA FIND OUT HOW TOUGH YOU ARE? YOU CAN FIND US ON AUGUST 6TH IN NEW YORK CITY FOR NEW JAPAN AND GLOBAL FORCES G1 SUPERSHOW! BRING THOSE BELTS WITH YA, BECAUSE WE PLAN ON TAKIN EM!" ***COMMERCIAL BREAK ***
Main Event: Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard vs Steve Williams and Terry Gordy for the WCW Tag Team Titles. Doc and Arn start off with some early rushes and fake-outs. Doc overpowers Anderson on the Greco-Roman knuckle lock but Arn breaks free and lands a kick to Doc’s knee. Doc elbows Arn into a corner and then lands a big corner lariat. Anderson goes down but rolls out of the way to dodge a jumping elbow drop and then tags Blanchard. They land double back elbows and Tully goes to town on Doc with stiff strikes. Doc hits back with a kneelift and tags Gordy.
Gordy lands a kick but Tully backs off. After a tense stare-down they engage in some technical mat wrestling. Gordy corners Blanchard but he elbows out, leading to another standoff. Then they start trading stiff elbows back-and-forth. The crowd goes nuts as neither man backs down. Blanchard gains the upper hand and tags Arn who unloads with kicks to Gordy’s chest and drops him with a running lariat. He pins but only gets two.
Anderson tries to keep Gordy grounded with a front chancery but Gordy gets to a corner. Gordy lands a kick but Tully unloads with kicks to Gordy’s chest and Gordy smashes Blanchards face into Doc’s knee, tags, and Doc lands a diving kneedrop facecrusher to Tully. 1.....2......Tully kicks out at two so Doc applies a grounded sleeper. Tully gets a ropebreak so Doc goes for a vertical suplex. But Blanchard lands behind him and locks in his own sleeper but with bodyscissors. Arn and Gordy lock eyes from across the ring to keep the other from interfering as Doc flails around trying to find an escape. He does, but Arn soon tags in and hits a dropkick, followed by a slam that gets a two-count. Anderson applies a chinlock that soon becomes a front chancery that allows Tully to tag in safely. Blanchard sends Doc into the ropes and applies an abdominal stretch but Gordy breaks that up with an elbow, which leads to loud boos.
Doc lands more nasty kneelifts and hits Tully with a running lariat of his own. Tully rolls out of the ring and sells like he’s in serious pain. He makes retching sounds and struggles to catch his breath, such was the power of Doc’s lariat. Blanchard makes it to the apron but Doc cuts him off and hits a-Jackhammer for a two-count and tags Gordy. Gordy applies an STF but Blanchard crawls to the ropes. He hits both Arn and Tully and tags Doc back in. Doc locks in a deathlock to weaken Blanchard’s legs so Blanchard tries to fight out with open-handed slaps but Doc absorbs them like they’re nothing. Tully fights through both the leg damage and some slaps from Doc and manages to pull both himself and Doc to the ropes to break up the hold.
Doc tags Gordy and they both attack Tully’s weakened left knee. Gordy locks in a heel hook but Tully uses his free leg to kick Gordy’s face. He gets free but Gordy pummels his head with forearms and tags Doc in again. Doc hits more kicks to Blanchard ’s bad knee and Tully answers in kind. But Doc is in better condition and overcomes that damage and then locks in a single leg crab. Tully gets another ropebreak so Doc hits him with a knee crusher, followed by his own heel hook. Blanchard gets a ropebreak, but Doc’s close enough to his corner for Gordy to tag in and kick the crap out of Blanchard while Doc maintains his leglock. Gordy attacks that same leg again as Blanchard tries to counter with a chinlock but fails. Gordy lands some knee presses onto Blanchard ’s weakened leg and tags Doc in once again. Ventura mentions that Doc and Gordy are taking a page out of the Horsemens playbook by isolating Tully from Arn.
Doc hits more calf kicks to Blanchard bad leg but those only anger him more. The crowd rallies behind Blanchard as he makes it to his feet. He can take no more of Doc’s kicks and hits some knees and an enzuigiri. Hot tag to Arn who lands a spinning lariat for two. His comeback is short-lived due to some back pain. Anderson unusual slowness allows Doc to take advantage with a tag to Gordy. Gordy goes for a suplex but Arn lands behind him and lands a spinebuster. Arn follows with a elbow smash and a dropkick that sends Gordy to the floor! Arn battles Williams as MJF comes out to check on Gordy. This brings out Ric Flair! Flair attacks MJF as Doc, Gordy, Arn and Tully continue their war. The reg calls for the bell ruling the match a double leg disqualification due to Flair and MJF's interference.
The crowd pops as Wardlow makes his way to the ring. But before he can get his hands on any of The Pinnacle members, MJF leads his group to the back. Wardlow stands in the ring with the Horsemen as show fades to black.
