WCW Thunder (January 15, 1998)

Original Airdate: January 15, 1998

From Lakeland, Florida; Your Hosts are Mike Tenay, Lee Marshall, and Bobby Heenan

Tony Schiavone brings Giant out to hype up the Kevin Nash match for Souled Out. Giant is playing it cool here, not at all bothered that he can’t take any frustrations out on Kevn Nash until the pay per view. But Raven’s Flock is taunting him from ringside, apparently forgetting that the performance bond doesn’t apply to them. Giant absolutely wrecks them, so Nash himself shows up, getting in his face, begging Giant to do something - Giant refusing to take the bait, and walking away. Good opening segment

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Ray Traylor and The Steiner Brothers v Black Cat, Ohara, and Gedo: Tenay announces breaking news that WCW United States Champion Diamond Dallas Page was apparently mugged, and may not make it to wrestle in the main event tonight. Ray fights off a triple team to allow the tag to Rick Steiner, and Rick holds Ohara on the mat for a bit. Tag to Scott Steiner for a belly-to-belly suplex on Cat, and he delivers some mounted punches, before forcing a tag to Ohara. Ohara eats a suplex right away, and he hooks Ohara in a tree of woe, as Tenay seems to be enjoying how Scott is roughing the guy up. He forces a tag to Gedo next, and delivers a tiger bomb, before finishing with the Screwdriver at 6:03. Total squash. ¼*

Ernest Miller v Yuji Nagata: The announcers note that WCW is considering introducing a martial arts division (though contested under normal wrestling rules), and this match is a test run for it. Miller blasts him with a kick right away, and a hiptoss follows. Sidekick finds the mark, but Nagata comes back with a suplex, and he unloads mounted punches. Another suplex gets him two, so he goes for the leg, working it. Piledriver gets two, but Miller reverses a cross corner whip, and capitalizes with a spinkick. Miller makes a comeback, and a flying roundhouse kick puts it away at 3:33. Was that all? Felt like an hour. ¼*

Schiavone brings JJ Dillon out, and he confirms that Dallas Page has been attacked outside of the building, and so Dillon needs to remove him from the match tonight. That draws DDP out (on crutches), and he wants to wrestle, liability be damned. But JJ is scared of getting sued, so Page offers to sign a hold harmless. More lawyering! Just what these shows have been missing lately!

Louie Spicolli v Scott Hall: Louie tries to kiss up to Hall and the nWo before the bell, so Larry Zbyszko comes out to try and talk sense into him. Louie responds by attacking Larry, but Zbyszko manages to fight them both off, and clean house. No match, but a good segment

#1 Contender's Match: Eddie Guerrero v Chris Jericho: Winner becomes top contender for the WCW Cruiserweight title. Chris tries a cheap shot, but Guerrero sees it coming, and pounds him down for a bootrake. Eddie lands a jumping backelbow and a seated dropkick, but Chris blocks a suplex, and they criss cross. Jericho manages a hotshot, and he press-drops him across the top rope for two. Side suplex, but Guerrero blocks, and throws a dropkick at the leg. Guerrero with some big chops, and he puts Chris in an abdominal stretch - complete with using the ropes for leverage. Irish whip, but Jericho reverses, and pop-up flapjacks him. Powerbomb, but Guerrero counters with a sunset flip for two, and Eddie adds a clothesline. He stretches Chris in a modified chinlock, and then nearly kills him with a gory driver. Eddie takes him up for a rana, but Jericho blocks. Guerrero responds with a corner whip and a rana, but Chris counters to the Liontamer at 4:27. This was short, and sloppy at points, though still quite good. ** ¼  

Bill Goldberg v Chavo Guerrero Jr: Disco Inferno shows up before Goldberg’s entrance, telling Chavo he should take a night off, because the fans want to see Disco instead. See him dance, more specifically. Chavo tells him to get lost, but makes the mistake of insulting his dancing, and eats a stunner. Okay, so Chavo is done, but here comes Goldberg, and he still hasn’t been fed. Disco gets killed in lieu of a match

Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff hit the ring, and they’re tired of JJ Dillon holding the WCW World title hostage, and want it returned to them right here and now. But, despite their demands, Dillon doesn’t even show his face, rendering this entire segment quite pointless. They need to announce something with held up title situation, and soon, because that whole situation is a complete mess at the moment

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Juventud Guerrera v Rey Mysterio Jr: Rey attacks during the handshake, and a reversal sequence ends in Mysterio using a headscissors to send the champion to the outside. Rey dives after him with a somersault plancha, but he injures his knee on the landing. That slows him down, and an attempt at a springboard flying sunset flip ends in Rey taking a slingshot back over the top. Guerrera dives after him with a suicada, and a slingshot legdrop is worth two on the way back into the ring. Guerrera with a spinkick, and a musclebuster is worth two. Everything they’re doing is drawing ‘oohs’ from both the crowd and the announcers, which is great. Guerrera with a brainbuster for two, so he grounds Rey in a chinlock to wear him down some, then delivers a spinheel kick for two. Rey bails to the apron, so Juvi chases, but takes a monkey flip into the post out there. That leaves Guerrera in trouble on the outside, but Rey is too battered to capitalize, and Guerrera is able to recover. Guerrera with a slingshot legdrop on the floor, and a springboard missile dropkick gets him two on the way back in. Mysterio manages to sweep the leg to buy time, but Guerrera fights off the follow-up, and he beats on Rey with chops. Cross corner whip works, but a corner splash misses, and Rey starts coming back. Tomikaze gets the challenger two, and a pinfall reversal sequence ends in Rey countering a powerbomb with a seated senton. Tornado DDT, but Guerrera drops him to the apron to block. Rey hustles to the top rope in response, but Guerrera follows for a superplex - only for Rey to counter with a gourdbuster. He dives with a flying rana, but Guerrera is ready, catching him in a powerbomb on the way down! Guerrera goes up for the flying 450 splash, but Rey dodges, and hooks a rana into a cradle to take the title at 9:46! Good action throughout here, but the constant title changes are starting to hurt the prestige of the title. *** ¼ 

Diamond Dallas Page and Lex Luger v Kevin Nash and Randy Savage: Hogan attacks Page during the entrances, beating his bad knee with a crutch to give him the SummerSlam ‘90 treatment. “Hogan knows about that knee,” scream the announcers, as if they’re solving a riddle. The man came out on crutches, it’s not a courtroom drama. Savage beats on Luger, but ends up getting into some friction with Nash, and ends up on the outside. Nash comes in to work on Lex (while taunting Randy), as Hollywood Hogan tries to play peacemaker. Nash gives Savage a slap across the chops as a ‘tag,’ so Macho threatens a dive after him, but Lex recovers, and makes a comeback. That draws Hogan in, but Lex takes him out. He gets Nash in the torture rack, but Savage saves. Hogan takes a swing, but ends up hitting Macho instead, and they go nose to nose as Giant shows up. Chokeslam for Hogan, as Savage retreats. The rest of the nWo run in to neutralize Giant, and that’s finally enough for the referee to call a DQ at 5:32. This was just a big angle, with heaps of overbooking. Afterwards, Sting runs in to save Giant, and the WCW guys clean house to end the show. DUD

BUExperience: A good episode that really breezed by. WCW may have had some major issues around this period (mostly in the world title picture), but there are still a lot of compelling angles and characters that make for good TV.