Original Airdate: February 2, 1998
From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (first half) and Bobby Heenan (second half)
Nitro Girls are back in the house this week
Juventud Guerrera v Psychosis: Psychosis has got an interesting sock situation going on here. They feel each other out, as the Flock make their way through the crowd for their usual distraction. Psychosis takes control and works a bearhug, then drops him with a bodyslam. Psychosis goes up with a dive, but lands in an inverted atomic drop, and Juvi goes up with a flying headscissors for two. Into the corner for chops, and a victory roll off the top is worth two. Pinfall reversal sequence ends in Psychosis hitting an inverted vertical suplex, and a dropkick knocks Guerrera to the outside. Psychosis dives after him, but Juvi blocks, and nails the flying 450 splash at 7:23. * ¼
SuperBrawl VIII ad
Nitro Girls
Gene Okerlund brings WCW United States Champion Diamond Dallas Page out to confirm that Page will be giving Chris Benoit a title shot this Thursday on Thunder. He should check again on Wednesday, I believe Benoit has a 24 hour cancellation policy. Unless he feels like going skiing for the day
Giant/Kevin Nash video package
Ultimo Dragon v Kidman: Kidman attacks with a dropkick to kick start things, but Dragon blocks a cross corner whip, and unloads a series of strikes. They fight over a suplex, ending in Dragon getting a Dragon Sleeper on, but Saturn is able to save his Flock mate. That allows Kidman to take control, and a bodyslam sets up a slingshot legdrop for two. Backdrop, but Dragon counters with a sunset flip for two, so Kidman snapmares him into a chinlock to cut him off. Dragon uses a jawbreaker to escape, but he telegraphs a backdrop, and gets clobbered. Kidman with a somersault cradle for two, and a vertical suplex is worth two. Corner charge, but Dragon throws a superkick to block, and snap suplexes him. Half-crab, but Kidman is quickly in the ropes, so Dragon takes him down in a modified bow-and-arrow. Kidman reverses, but can’t hold it, so he tries a backdrop, but Drgaon blocks. Reversal sequence ends in Kidman hitting a sitout spinebuster for two, and a springboard bulldog is worth two. Corner whip sets up a clothesline on the rebound for two, so Kidman goes upstairs, but Dragon crotches him. Dragon brings him down with a rana, and the Sleeper finishes at 5:46. A really fun match. Afterwards, the Flock run in for a beatdown, since that’s the only tool in the toolbag for both major promotions in 1998. ***
Kevin Nash comes out to laugh off JJ Dillon’s fines, while making a good point that Kidman used a version of the powerbomb in the last match, yet there were no cops coming out for him
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chris Jericho v Super Calo: They feel each other out to start, and Calo gets control. Criss cross allows Jericho a hotshot to turn the tide, and he uses a hanging vertical suplex on his challenger. Snapmare sets up a chinlock, so Calo turnbuckle smashes him, but Chris dropkicks the leg to cut him off. Bodyslam sets up a slingshot splash for two, and he takes Calo into the corner to crack with chops. Clothesline finds the mark, but a trip to the top ends in Jericho taking a wild bump to the outside. Calo with a baseball slide and a somersault plancha, and he suplexes Chris back in. Flying dropkick gets the challenger two, so he tries a headscissors off the top, but Chris blocks. Chris with a spinebuster from there, and the Liontamer finishes at 5:07. * ½
WCW Television Title Match: Booker T v Lord Steven Regal: Some measuring to start, and Booker takes control with a wristlock, but Regal manages a takedown. Booker fights to a vertical base in a double knucklelock, and a savate kick finds the mark. Booker works a standing side-headlock, but Regal fights free, and puts the champ in a straightjacket. Booker fights free with a forearm for two, and he unloads in the corner, so Steven goes to the eyes, and corner whips him. Booker fights back with a backslide for two, but Regal manages a schoolboy for two, so Booker starts punching. Spinkick puts Regal on his arse, and an axekick gets two. Bodypress, but Regal ducks it, and starts peppering him with uppercuts. Booker fights back with a side suplex, however, and the Harlem sidekick puts it away at 4:22. The work wasn’t very smooth, but they held it together enough overall. *
Hugh Morrus v Konnan: Hugh knocks him around to start, and an overhead armdrag leads to a press-slam, so Konnan bails. He tries suckering Hugh on the way back in, but Morrus sees it coming, leaving Konnan to have to slug him down. Konnan with a snapmare to set up a seated dropkick, but Hugh fights him off again, and delivers a powerslam. Hugh goes up for the flying moonsault, but Konnan powerbombs him off (again with no mention about how the move is illegal, despite them literally just discussing the new $150,000 fine on Nash just a seconds before), and Konnan adds a facebuster at 3:56. ¼*
Jim Neidhart v Scott Hall: Louie Spicolli distracts Neidhart for Hall to attack from behind, but a corner charge misses, and Jim hammers him. Neidhart with a shoulderblock, as Heenan clarifies that he always hated Hulk Hogan and always hated Dusty Rhodes, so maybe people should start listening to him. Man’s got a point. Neidhart works a nervehold, so Dusty distracts him, and Hall sneaks up with the Outsider’s Edge at 2:08. Afterwards, Davey Boy Smith runs out to make the save, preventing an nWo beatdown, and establishing their history for the WCW audience. DUD
Gene brings Lex Luger out to hype up his match with Randy Savage at SuperBrawl. Not much to this one
Nitro Party video. Not a good one, either
Nitro Girls get up close and personal with the fans in the crowd
Bill Goldberg v Mark Starr: Starr tries attacking as Goldberg climbs into the ring, but Bill quickly shrugs him off. Starr tries clipping the leg, but Goldberg quickly escapes an anklelock, and press-powerslams him. Spear and the Jackhammer finish at 1:13. The usual intense Goldberg squash. ¼*
Steve McMichael v Davey Boy Smith: Smith sweeps him to the outside before even climbing into the ring, and Bulldog delivers an atomic drop out there. Mongo manages to clobber him on the way inside, so Davey clotheslines him over the top, and Bulldog follows. Whip into the steps out there, but Steve reverses, and they brawl up the aisle for a double countout at 1:02. This was just an angle to set up a match for SuperBrawl. And that’s perfectly fine, that’s exactly what TV is there for. ¼*
Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff join us, and Hulk is cool with paying Kevin Nash’s fines in perpetuity, so powerbomb away, big guy. Also, he wants Nick Patrick as the referee at SuperBrawl, that’s a-okay with him. And, finally, he lets Randy Savage know that if he wants to ‘go it alone,’ that’s fine, he can start tonight, against Sting. This was a solid promo… not too long and covered all of Hulk’s current business
Raven's Rules Match: Raven v Disco Inferno: Raven pounds him into the corner, then casually chucks him out of the ring to set up a plancha. Raven brings a chair with him on the way back in, and he armdrags Disco onto it, then drop-toeholds him with it as well. Disco comes back with a clothesline, and a schoolboy gets him two. Again for another two, and he stays on the man with a swinging neckbreaker for two. Side suplex is worth two, but he goes to the well again, and gets reversed. Raven tries another side suplex, but Disco topples him for two, and schoolboys for another two. Disco unloads in the corner, and tries a leveraged cradle for two, before eating a DDT at 4:54. Raven’s stuff looked great here, but I thought the match was super repetitive, with the same moves again and again. ¾*
Nitro Gals
Kevin Nash and Buff Bagwell v The Steiner Brothers: The WCW World Tag Team title is not on the line here. As it should be! I’m sick of this ‘Freebird rule’ crap. Bagwell and Scott Steiner start, and Buff gets an armdrag out of the initial lockup, allowing him to pose. Criss cross ends in Bagwell booting him in the gut, and he hammers Scott down with an axehandle. Hiptoss, but Scott reverses, and clobbers him with a clothesline. Tigerbomb finds the mark, and now we’re doing powerbombs in matches with Kevin Nash and pretending it’s all good. Nash takes a cheap shot to allow Bagwell to turn the tide back, and the nWo work Scott over. Nash threatens a powerbomb, but Rick Steiner comes in illegally to prevent it. Bagwell cuts off the tag, but Scott wins a criss cross, and Rick catches the tag… nope, Scott elects not to. Instead, he decides to go it alone, and the Frankensteiner finishes Bagwell at 7:18. Afterwards, Rick chews Scott out for not making the tag, which is kind of a weird thing to be angry about, considering they won the match. I get that they’re slow burning the story, and that’s fine, but at least when Owen flipped out it was because he and Bret had just lost. ½*
Sting v Randy Savage: This is actually the first match between these two ever. Sting chases him into the aisle for a brawl to start, sending Macho into the guardrail, and then bodyslamming him on the floor. Inside, Sting keeps unloading, and he looks to be in great shape here compared to a few months ago. Back to the outside, Sting reverses Savage into the post, but a Stinger Splash against the rail gets blocked when Macho uses a weapon. Macho drops him across the rail for good measure, and Randy goes in to expose a top turnbuckle, before diving at Sting with a flying axehandle. Macho posts him, and a piledriver finds the mark on the way back in, but Sting no-sells. He makes a comeback, and lands the Stinger Splash. Second one misses, however, and Sting knocks himself silly on the exposed buckle in the process. That allows Randy a flying elbowdrop, but Hulk Hogan runs in to break up the pin - getting Sting disqualified at 3:38. That nearly leads to blows between Savage and Hogan, but Lex Luger comes in to attack Randy before that can happen. That leaves Sting to go after Hogan, but Hollywood takes off before Sting can get hold of him. ½*
BUExperience: The wrestling was better on Nitro, but RAW had multiple angles that people talked about for literal years after, and Nitro also felt really, really long. Probably because it was.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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