Nerd Watch Wednesday: Lord Steven Regal vs Juventud Guerrera (Nitro, 28 Oct 1996)

Oct 28, 20204 min read

Updated: Nov 4, 2020

By Ross Casey

"For the foreseeable future, Nerd Watch Wednesday's will feature a match that fell 'on this day' and this week I have picked what promises to be an interesting clash of styles when Lord Steven Regal takes on Juventud Guerrera in the opening match of the 28th October 1996 edition of Nitro."

WCW TV TITLE MATCH: LORD STEVEN REGAL (C) vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA (WCW Nitro, Oct 28th 1996)

Juventud is out first and despite being just months into his WCW career here, he has a great opportunity at winning his first gold with the promotion - outside of his usual Cruiserweight division.

Lord Regal is out second, as champions should - and Zbysko calls him a pompous jerk, which let's face it, is a fair appraisal of the Lord Steven Regal character. The way he portrays himself here is genius, the attire, the facial expressions and the way he carries himself with his nose up to all is fantastic. What a heel.

I appreciate that commentary big Regal up as a workhorse wrestler, noting he has recently returned from Europe where he defended his title day in and day out. Heels are even better when they are annoyingly good at their job too! There's a fan in a cowboy hat holding a Union Jack flag, which is weirdly jarring to me. Pick a side, bro!

Before the ring bell, we see Sting in his Crow gear watching in the rafters. Man, what a cool gimmick this was and I love how it was a slow burn. Back to the action in hand and Regal has a noticeable size advantage over Juventud - who is yet to Juice at this point!

Juventud somewhat stupidly applies a tie and elbow with Regal to start, the champion is a superior technical wrestler and easily gets the better hand of the Cruiserweight. Before we can enjoy the sequence though, the NWO arrive in the crowd with Syxx welcoming everyone to NWO Nitro. Zbysko is all like, wahhhh no it's WCW Nitro!

He then tells Sting to not listen to the others and join the NWO. The director has become fed up of him at this point like Shafi always is and cuts back to the ring, where Regal is still in control. It's a shame in a way as once they do we see some awkward moments between the wrestlers as the styles are indeed clashing and not meshing.

They drop the technical stuff and go to a Lucha style, with Juventud hitting a hurricanrana on Regal, which looks impressive and we are back on track. Juventud follows up with a body slam and a 450 splash attempt but misses with a THUD. Regal celebrates like he's just scored a 90th minute winner because he's a legend.

The camera cuts one more time to Sting and Zbysko quips that he looks like a sorry state for a man. Ouch! We come back to ringside and Regal is applying the Regal Stretch for the win.

The ref gives Regal his title and the champion looks at him with disdain, blows on the belt and wipes it, disgusted that a peasant has touched his gold. Bloke's a genius.

WINNER: STILL WCW TV CHAMPION, LORD STEVEN REGAL BY REGAL STRETCH

THOUGHTS: This was a 3 minute match with two interruptions, some awkward exchanges and I bloody loved it! Regal here is brilliant, his mannerisms bring so much to the match and whilst this is Juventud way out of his comfort zone, he still showed decent technical skills and in the 450 splash showed great agility and balls to land on his face like that. A fun start to Nitro - time to watch the rest!

That's all, folks!

PREVIOUS NERD WATCHES:

MATT C - SUMMERSLAM 92

CHARLIE - SURVIVOR SERIES 99

SHAFI - SUMMERSLAM 94

NINETIES MIKE - THE WRESTLING CLASSIC

JCH - WRESTLE KINGDOM 7

DOM - HEATWAVE 98

N/A - SUMMERSLAM 2019

PETE - SAKURA GENESIS 2017

ROSS - WORLD WAR 3 1997

RO - DECEMBER TO DISMEMBER