99th episode of WCW Nitro and Lex Luger winning the big one | WON Flashback
August 4 1997 was a big night for Lex Luger, as he defeated Hollywood Hulk Hogan to become the WCW Heavyweight Champion in the main event of that week’s WCW Nitro.
Our own Dave Meltzer gave the match itself a 3/4* in the August 11, 1997 Wrestling Observer Newsletter (which you can read in full with a subscription), but the 99th episode of WCW Nitro would be far more successful in terms of quality (and actual ratings) than WWF Raw that week.
Lex Luger wins the WCW World Championship
Here is what Dave Meltzer had to say about WCW Nitro 99:
“From a show quality standpoint, WCW easily won the week, although largely by default as WWF offered little more than Sgt. Slaughter, an explanation as to the physical condition of Steve Austin and the mental condition of Shawn Michaels. The WWF’s matches, with the exception of Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku, ranged from bad to baaaaad. Granted, the three hours of WCW seemed at times like an endurance test more than a wrestling show, but the viewer patterns with the ratings generally growing throughout the three hours tells the important story.
“Viewers stayed with the show and grew with it, through the teases for the Steiners surprise, Sting being offered a contract, and the Hogan-Luger match with Luger guaranteeing victory (the general pro wrestling rule is if a babyface either guarantees victory or swears to God that he’s going to win, than he’s either going to win or he’s going to turn heel). The overall wrestling in WCW ranged from very good short matches (Jarrett & Malenko vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero and Chris Benoit vs. Syxx); a heated world title change that offered little in regard to wrestling but had been built up great and featured an awesome post-match textbook example of how to get a title belt back over, average wrestling with big names (Flair vs. Page); solid wrestling with no names (Villanos vs. Garza & Lizmark);and bad wrestling regardless of names (Public Enemy vs. Voltage, Barbarian vs. Wrath, Silver King & Damian vs. Ernest Miller & Glacier).
8/4 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace (WCW Monday Nitro tapings – 17,616 sellout/13,358 paid):
- Curt Hennig b Mortis
- Jeff Jarrett & Dean Malenko b Hector & Chavo Guerrero Jr.
- The Giant b Joey Maggs & Scott D’Amore & Lenny Lane, Public Enemy b High Voltage -1/2*
- WCW cruiserweight title: Alex Wright b Scotty Riggs
- Chris Benoit b Syxx-DQ, Booker T b Vincent
- Wrath b Barbarian, Konnan b Psicosis
- Glacier & Ernest Miller b Silver King & Damian
- Diamond Dallas Page b Ric Flair-DQ *
- Los Villanos (Villano IV & Villano V) b. Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr.
- WCW Heavyweight title :Lex Luger b Hulk Hogan to win title 3/4*
Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling as Head of Media as well as working on the social channels of the company.