[6.0] "While the wrestling on this show is pretty good overall, the angles are a bit strange. I'm tuning in to see the fallout of Bash at the Beach, but there's no scheduled appearance for the Outsiders (I guess because they're still Outsiders at this point), and its announced during the broadcast that Hogan is appearing next week, meaning we aren't going to see or hear from the winners of the "most important main event ever" on this episode as follow up. It's a bit of an odd vibe that everything is business as usual on Nitro in the wake of the founding of the NWO."

[5.0] "A fine opening cruiserweight match with a surprising and correct booking decision. A horrific segment with the Steiners and the nasty boys ... these guys can't talk for shit and worse, they have nothing interesting to say. Glacier teaser is power rangers levels of cheap cringe. Dungeon of Doom vs Blue bloods was short and mediocre with a fucked finish, heel/face dynamics off with DoD being faces. Eddie Guerrero vs. Psychosis perfectly passable, some good some bad moments. Jimmy Hart, Kevin and The giant segment was shite, no direction at all, the giant was the highlight which says a lot, Mean Gene trying his best. Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags vs. Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner was better than I expected, not seen much Nasty Boys so it was quite new for me, the power offence and big man wrestling worked well and was a nice contrast to the two cruiserweight matches we'd seen already, the finish was awful, follow up Nasty boys promo was horrific, Brian Knobbs says okay things but the delivery is poor. Flair match is very dull ... that's all I have to say about it. Four horsemen segment a mixed bag, Arn was great, mongo was shit, Flair not great. Bischoff and heenan on camera segment pretty good. Benoit Pittman started hot with some good wrestling then got shit, disappointing. Sting and Arn ... poor and disappointing, NOW involvement was meh. Sting's promo on Hogan's turn is fantastic, so well done Sting. Macho's promo is fine. Outsider's promo - Nash ... shit, Hall ... pretty good. Conclusion - standard quality for TV in 1996, nothing special except Sting's great promo, nothing awful, if I'd paid to be there Id have been moderately disappointed but its fine TV."

[6.0] "The show is carried by some strong cruiserweight action and the intrigue of Hulk Hogan turning the night before."

[9.0] "This was a really good show after the fall out at Bash of the Beach. There's two great matches at the first hour with Rey Mysterio defeating Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight Title and there was another strong match in that division with Eddie Guerrero and Psychosis. The Disney/MGM arena was a unique setting for the show with everything happening in an open arena and there was kind of a sombre mood throughout the show because of Hogan's betrayal of WCW the previous night, with even many of the heels condemning his actions. The whole atmosphere actually played quite well into the Sting vs AA main event. Hall and Nash appear at ringside at the end of the show in a stand off with Sting and Macho Man. Hogan not appearing at all made next week's show feel important."

[8.0] "The crowd got tired as this one wore on (possibly due to the heat maybe? ), but they were into it for the first half and there were two great matches for free TV here, so for the standards of the time this show was very watchable. They are probably better episodes of the show out there, but this was still a solid effort from WCW and I get why it has mostly positive reviews from the inmates here on Cage Match. The outdoor setting was nice as something different too, and its always fun for a company to keep things fresh from a presentation perspective now and then"

[6.0] "This show is HARD CARRIED by the opener match and the promos from Sting, Arn Anderson, and (oddly enough) The Nasty Boys of all people. Genuinely, The Nasty Boys were very entertaining the entire night whenever they were not wrestling, and Scott Steiner's portion of the promo was also enjoyable for what it was. Benoit vs Sgt. Craig Pittman was also really, really fun as a sprint of a match, oddly enough? Made Sgt. Craig Pittman look to be a lot better than I remembered him being, but that's mostly on him being a better vehicle in the ring than a carrier. On the negative side though, there was The Blue Bloods/Dungeon of Doom tag match, a disappointing Sting/Arn match considering what they're capable of, and a bit too much time given to Eddie/Psychosis, surprisingly enough. All in all, not bad for a Nitro, and an easy enough watch."

[6.0] "This was a pretty good Nitro, the first from Disney/MGM outdoor studios. We got a wide variety of action from the terrific Rey Mysterio/Dean Malenko match to open the show to Eddie and Psicosis, a decent Steiners/Nasty Boys match. But Sting got to cut a great promo on Hulk Hogan following his betrayal the previous night at Bash at the Beach, which summarized the history of Nitro leading to the turn. Arn Anderson had the promo of the night running down Hogan's actions while maintaining his heel status. NOt the best Nitro, but good enough."

[8.0] "This is a really strong follow-up to the PPV. They sell the hell out of the shock of what happened there and the commentators do a good job of sounding on edge about the invasion from the NWO. The opening match was excellent with a really cool finish that was a surprise. Eddie Guerrero Psychosis was solid as expected, and ends with a classic outsiders run in that will become a trend."

[7.0] "Fallout from Bash at the Beach is loud in this whole card. WCW wrestlers, DOD and the 4 horseman are is shock at what happened. In the mean time we got amazing cruiserweight action including Rey winning his first WCW cruiserweight title. The Steiners on their way to becoming WCW tag team Champs is so close. Sting and Anderson end the show but the Outsiders attack. WCW is getting wild."

[5.0] "As usual when Nitro manages to be mediocre at worst, the cruiserweights are the ones doing all the heavy lifting to make it so. Malenko vs Misterio was a really good match that made for a great opener. Malenko's aggressive technical work and brutal power moves were great, and obviously Mysterio's high-flying stunts were awesome. Their chemistry was mostly flawless, leading to many exciting exchanges and spots. Best Nitro match thus far. ***1/2. Regal & Taylor vs Bubba & Morrus was super short and ended via ref distraction and a cheap 2-on-1 attack. Totally pointless match. NR. What was worse was that Bubba and Tenta continued their god awful feud in the post-match. Eddie vs Psychosis had some very smooth grappling exchanges and impressively agile high-flying exchanges. Psychosis slowed things down with his methodical arm-targeting work, all of which looked good and was matched with good babyface-selling from Eddie. Eddie's counters were all well-timed and smoothly executed, though his long-term arm-selling was inconsistent. ***. Nasty Boys vs Steiners had a few good moments (basically whenever The Steiners were hitting their big suplexes and strikes), but the Nasties' brawl work and tag spots were very low-effort. The lame ref-distraction and interference made for a totally anti-climactic finish. **. Flair vs Powers was just a time-waster. Flair going 50/50 with some intensity- and personal-devoid, nobody jobber was very boring and nonsensical, and it was especially dumb how he even had to rely on his cheating and cheap tactics to gain control. I would have preferred seeing Flair just put such a low-level dude away as opposed to selling big time for him as if he was Sting. *3/4. Benoit vs Pittman was fine for being so short. They surprisingly had some decently intense technical exchanges, and Pittman surprisingly hit an awesome neck-first german suplex. I wouldn't have minded them going a lot longer if they were going to do more of that. NR. Sting vs Arn was very basic with mid-level energy levels from both guys. They had a handful of interesting interactions but most of them were pretty boring. The match then got derailed by a distraction from Nash and Hall anyways, ending in disappointing fashion. **. Sting and Savage gave really good hyped-up promos attacking Hogan in the post-match, doing very well to set themselves up as the main babyfaces in opposition to him and who fans could rally around. So, this episode didn't actually address the drama surrounding Hogan's turn, which is excusable because it was only a day prior. I liked how they instead showed a bunch of wrestlers reacting to his turn, making his turn feel even more significant because it was shown to have shocked even his fellow wrestlers."

[7.0] "This was an enjoyable episode of Nitro following Bash at the Beach. I loved the outdoor venue, it looked so cool and you don't get that in modern wrestling. I also loved the old folks sitting up front in their wheelchairs, so much better than idiots with podcast signs,"

[9.0] "A great followup to the end of Bash at the Beach. There's not much advancement of the NWO angle but the show is surprisingly very enjoyable."

[9.0] "Something in me made want to start watching old school WCW, so I started watching the NWO era. I liked how the whole company is in dismay following Hogan's turn. A great Cruiserweight title match and seeing Eddie pre-Latino Heat is interesting. Of course the crowd still loves him. Hogan not being there was a good choice and using Hogan/Nash to hype his return as well as riling up the wrestlers was a great ending. This is actually some good stuff"

[7.0] "Dean Malenko v. Rey Misterio Jr. (8/10) - Looking back it is astounding how quick Rey is and how smooth Malenko is. Holy crap. The Blue Bloods v. The Dungeon of Doom (3/10) - Meh match, always great watching Regal work though. Eddie Guerrero v. Psychosis (7/10) - Great match, really didn't expect Eddie to win. Fantastic chemistry shown. The Steiner Brothers v. The Nasty Boys (5/10) - Not any longer than it needed to be, I really hate one of TNB, but I can't tell them a part. Ric Flair v. Jim Powers (6/10) - I thought this was a great, quick title defense for Flair. He looked like a vet, and Powers looked good too. Chris Benoit v. Sgt. Craig Pittman (3/10) - Benoit's aggression here is on full display. Sting v. Arn Anderson (7/10) - Both of these guys cut great promos and had a great match to follow. Its Arn and Sting, what'd you expect."

[9.0] "Lots of good stuff on this Nitro, including a few really good matches. In addition to Mysterio/Malenko and Eddie/Psychosis, I thought the Blue Bloods and Benoit had good short matches. Lots of great promos reacting to Hogan's turn, the best of which was Arn Anderson's but Sting cut a surprisingly good promo about it as well. Loved Hall and Nash showing up in the main event and Sting and Arn stopping the fight, ready to face them down (though Arn couldn't resist going for the win)."

[8.0] "The episode is good for most of the time. Amazing Rey Mysterio vs Dean Malenko opener, Eddie Guerrero vs Psychosis delivers an enjoyable match, Arn Anderson vs Sting works as a main event and all the angles are about Hulk Hogan's heel turn, but he's not at the show. This is how to do an episode after a pay per view event, impressive Nitro."

[8.0] "Rey Mysterio won the cruiserweight championship, Good Match between Eddie Guerrero and psychosis, Ric Flair defends his United States championship, The Steiner Brothers Becomes 1 # contenders for the Tag Teams titles. Good Episode of Nitro"