[7.0] "ok I have to say the idea of voting who you want to see in the main event is a cool idea and something you can only truly do if the show is live. I think they're doing this to shove it in the face of the WWF as they were pretending to do something similar on Raw a few weeks ago, because Raw actually wasn't live. So they have a group of faces and a group of heels backstage that you can choose from. I don't believe that the audience will truly pick the matchup, but I do believe that the callers believed it lol. The first "match" is or is not a world title match. Nobody truly knows. Matchguide says it is, Giant says it is, the ring announcer was forced into announcing it, but Bischoff swears up and down that this is not a title match because Giant doesn't truly have the title. I am thoroughly confused as to why this is even a discussion. They keep replaying halloween havoc and Giant winning that match. So, wtf? More Nitro chaos I guess. Giant murders Cobra with a chokeslam and match over. They spent a lot of time talking about Hogan going to the dark side. This isn't really "NWO" here as he's not being a heel, but he is overall feeling spited and of course he's wearing black. It's like they're trying to make him seem like a more dangerous/mysterious guy but not necessarily a bad guy. There's a great benoit/guererro match where for some reason they also show this "japanese contingency" lol in the audience? Bunch of Japanese guys eating what looks like an expensive meal, somewhere in the audience. ok! lol. Well Eddie G (face) wins the match over Benoit (heel) with a pin even though Benoit's feet were in the ropes. Umm, shouldn't that be reversed? I guess this is what people complain about when they talk about how Bischoff doesn't understand how to book . Like, what's the point of the heel/face relationship if the face is gonna do heel shit and you're supposed to feel bad for the heel? There is no point really except shock value and i'm sure the angles will suffer for it. The main event ends up being Stinger vs Flair. Surprisingly Sting wins cleanly but he keeps Flair in the winning submission hold for a good 2 hours after the bell rings, to the point where what seems like the entire roster of babyfaces has to come out to get Sting to give up. So, Bischoff really trying to blur the lines of good and evil here with Hogan showing his dark side and Sting doing heel shit. Luger comes out and says something to Luger that nobody hears, and causes Sting to give up. So here we have the end of the show where the Giant is in the ring with the belt and Mean Gene keeps saying that the Giant really doesn't have the title. But Jimmy Hart is in the middle of the ring with a contract that proves the Giant indeed is the champ. But then some lawyer comes out and states the belt will be on the line for world war 3, 60 man rumble, and Giant needs to give his belt back. tbh this is sorta fun but I think it would go over a little better if Hogan did a few promos in the last week or so complaining that his belt was taking unjustly. It would have helped the story quite a bit. At least now I understand the controversy a lot better than I did before. Also I'll add the true superstar of this whole fucking thing is Gene Okerlund. Dude just brings this great sense of legitimacy and authenticity that wouldn't exist without him. Overall this was an entertaining episode with two very good matches. I will also give points for the last segment that really played out well regarding the world championship title and ww3 ramifications. I deduct some points for the shoe-horned in shock value and the stuff with the japanese guys who played absolutely no part in the episode at all. I also do not like the Giant simply winning with a chokeslam instead of a few punches first then leading to it. Good show!"

[9.0] "Two strong matches on this episode of Nitro so it was a really good show in my opinion. You really can't go wrong booking a Benoit vs Guerrero match and while it is short, the action in it was still very good. Sting vs Ric Flair was a great main event and also had some strong character work from Sting where you start to see more of a dark side to him as he really punished Flair for betraying him and surprisingly he was still friends with Luger, who had recently turned heel. The WCW Title was vacated in the last segment of the show with the stakes now higher for the World War 3 PPV."

[6.0] "The episode where fans called in to choose the main event for the show, which was definitely seen from not even a mile away. But the match itself nonetheless was solid. Anytime Eddie and Chris go at it, it's always a good time. And not to mention Hogan and Savage going to the Darkside in the buildup for World War 3, with "Brother" being the head of WW3, which took me out."

[6.0] "Great hype up for World War 3. I don't know if the phone call vote was real or not but Sting and Flair was going to happen no matter what. The Renegade being buried wasn't necessary but the show was saved Benoit and Eddie."

[3.0] "Only 1 good match and then some lame squashes, a goofy main-event, and some YELLING angles/segments for the rest of the runtime. Giant vs Cobra was a 10-second squash. Giant remained overly cartoony, and Cobra was notable only for his dreadful "morse-code beeps" entrance theme. Worthless segment. Too short to rate. NR. The backstage segments in the 'red' and 'blue' locker rooms was just a bunch of mindless screaming as all the wrestlers attempted promos at once. Why bother even entertaining that fans *wouldn't* vote for Flair vs Sting, anyways? Hogan and Savage's pre-tape segment was over-the-top but at least energetic, but the guy between them was REALLY annoying with his pointless interruptions. Taskmaster vs Renegade was yet more goofiness. Renegade's offence was very awkward and poorly timed. Taskmaster's was more refined but overly basic, plus his look is still awful. Too short to rate. NR. Hart's post-match tirade on Renegade, totally burying him as someone who will never be a true star, all while referring to his IRL name of "Rick", honestly felt pretty unsettling considering how based in reality Hart's criticisms likely were, plus how we now know Renegade's career trajectory and unfortunate demise Angle itself would have been fine if it led to Renegade developing somehow (though obviously it wouldn't). Eddie vs Benoit was (surprise surprise! ) the highlight of yet another Nitro. Benoit put 100% effort into every strike and power move he delivered, getting tremendous (and at times pretty dangerous-looking) impact on all of it and showing good aggression the entire time. Eddie sold well as the babyface and pulled off some great high-flying stunts plus some impactful power moves of his own in his comeback. Great chemistry all around. The screwed finish actually worked well to give reason for their feud to continue. ***1/4. Sting vs Flair was sadly a return to cartoony 90s American wrestling. It followed a very cheesy babyface-vs-heel structure. They did all their standard "Sting is a strong badass who never gives up" spots and "Flair is an arrogant and cheating coward" spots. It's such a kid-friendly structure that it's impossible to take as a seriously competitive affair. At least Flair had some stiff chops and his character work was pretty charismatic. **1/4. Post-match debacle with the babyfaces trying but failing to reason with Sting to take mercy on the defeated Flair was interesting because it implied Sting going to the dark side. Luger somehow reasoning with Sting to leave Flair alone was also mildly intriguing. The Hart promo was entertaining since he channeled his goofiness in a smooth and enjoyably energetic way (unlike The Giant or Taskmaster). The sudden stripping of the title from The Giant was very anticlimactic because it devolved into dry legal arguments from an essentially robotic WCW lawyer referencing things that happened offscreen. At least the title will now be off The Giant."

[7.0] "Benoit/Guerrero is a great match, and most of the rest of the show is effective for what it wants to be. I'm not a fan of yet another very generic Flair/Sting match, but at least the interesting Luger/Sting relationship developed a bit further afterwards."

[6.0] "Overall an enjoyable Nitro episode. First part is very bad. It features only uninteresting matches focused on Dungeon of Doom. Then it becomes much better. Benoit vs Guerrero is very good. Howewer their first match was better. Flair vs Sting is a great TV match with cool story. Luger and Sting started their alliance here. We have very big announcement at the end, great build-up for World War III."

[8.0] "A really good episode of Nitro in the second part of the show. Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit is an exciting contest, and Sting vs Ric Flair is the match the crowd wanted to see, a resolution after the heel turn of Flair with a clean ending by submission. There is also the world title that gets vacant to create the main event of World War 3. Many things happen in this 50 minutes show."