WCW Thunder (April 22, 1998)

Original Airdate: April 22, 1998

From Columbia, South Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, and Bobby Heenan

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan comes out with Eric Bischoff and Disciple to cut his victory promo, and officially respray the title belt to his liking. And, of course, he needs to take credit for Nitro’s big TV rating (Bischoff dubs him ‘Hollywood 6.5-in-the-last-quarter-hour Hogan’), and you just know Hogan used RAW’s rating win as a way to leverage himself back into the title picture. You can’t say the guy didn’t know how to capitalize on something

WCW Television Title Match: Booker T v Disco Inferno: Booker hammers him onto the ropes to start, and delivers a backdrop. Disco tries a hiptoss, but Booker clotheslines him to block, and covers for two. Savate kick leads to an axekick, and a criss cross sees Disco take a bump over the top. Booker dives after him with an axehandle from the apron, and he shoves Disco into the post out there. Inside, Disco twists his ankle during a criss cross, and he suckers Booker into a cheap shot while the referee is checking on him. That allows Disco a piledriver for two, and a jumping clothesline gets another two. Chinlock, but Booker fights free, so Disco backelbows him for two. Booker comes back again with a spinebuster, and a jumping forearm finds the mark. Flapjack follows, as does the Harlem sidekick. That allows Booker to go upstairs, and the missile dropkick finishes at 5:29. ¾*

Prince Iaukea v Barbarian: Mike Tenay joins commentary for this one. Barbarian doesn’t bother waiting for the bell, and unloads on Prince. Prince fights back with a trio of dropkicks, and a springboard flying bodypress gets him two. Cue Jimmy Hart, and the distraction allows Barbarian to clip the leg. Barbarian works it, so Prince starts throwing headbutts, and straight up bites Barbarian. That just serves to piss the big man off, however, and Barbarian goes back to wrecking the leg, before finishing with a big boot at 2:25. Weird psychology, with Barbarian working the leg and working the leg and working the leg… then finishing with a kick to the head. ¼*

Lex Luger and Rick Steiner v Buff Bagwell and Scott Norton: Luger seems to be in a good mood this week. Rick and Buff start, and Bagwell catches him with a dropkick, but wastes time posing instead of following up. Bagwell with a suplex, but Rick pops up, and hammers him with rights, then drills him with a jumping clothesline. Rick with an overhead superplex to set up an elbowdrop, and it’s over to Luger for a 2nd rope axehandle. Tag to Scott, and Lex is ready for him with a series of clotheslines. Torture rack looks to finish, but Bagwell cuts him off, and Norton delivers an inverted atomic drop to set up a clothesline. The nWo work Luger over, but he gets away long enough, and Rick gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door. Overhead suplex on Bagwell looks to finish, but Scott saves. Lex gets rid of him, allowing Rick to go to the top. Vincent tries to shove him off, but Scott Steiner shows up to protest, and Rick hits Bagwell with the flying bulldog in the chaos. He tries covering, but Buff is suddenly pretty stiff, and Rick has trouble rolling him over - Bagwell suffering a legitimate neck injury on the bulldog spot that put him out of action for basically the rest of 1998. Anyway, Rick tries rolling him over, but Scott Steiner comes in to whack him with a chair himself, and he puts an immobile Bagwell on top of Rick for the pin at 5:03. The program kind of grinds to a halt from there, as they can’t safely move Bagwell out of the ring until the ambulance arrives, so we’re left with the announcers improvising for an extended period. ½*

Horace v Evan Karagias: Tenay is back, and he’s got the deets on this Horace character. And Evan gets a little up close introduction, as Horace wrecks his, while the crowd chants ‘boring.’ I’m surprised they went with this match after three segments of dead air, frankly. Horace squashes him, but Diamond Dallas Page runs in before he can finish, attacking Horace for the DQ at 1:17. And then he takes Evan and the referee out as well, so he can call Raven out without interruption. Raven comes out to respond, but doesn’t engage, just teasing DDP. Page responds by bringing up shit about Raven’s family, and nearly goads him into fighting, but Raven doesn’t take the bait. DUD

Schiavone brings Randy Savage out, and he’s not really in the mood to answer questions, so he just takes the microphone and tears into Bret Hart for costing him the title on Monday. Good, impassioned promo from Savage here. Sadly, he couldn’t back up his stuff in the ring anymore by this point

WCW United States Champion Bill Goldberg video package

WCW United States Title Match: Bill Goldberg v Mike Enos: Enos attacks, trying to blitz Goldberg before the champion can get a strike off, but Bill just absorbs it, and takes him down into a kneebar. Mike makes the ropes, so Goldberg suplexes him, and delivers a short-clothesline. Enos comes back with a powerslam for one, but Goldberg barely acknowledges it, and spears him. Jackhammer, and you know that’s it at 1:59. ¼*

Sting v Scott Steiner: Scott attacks as Sting is climbing into the ring, and he goes to work, but loses a criss cross. That allows Sting a series of clotheslines that end in Scott on the outside, and Sting brings him back in to keep pounding on. Scott buys time with a mulekick, and a butterfly powerbomb leads to a 2nd rope axehandle, but Sting blocks. He makes a comeback, and the Stinger Splash leads to the Scorpion Deathlock, so Konnan runs in for the DQ at 4:24. This was just a paper match - two guys whose names look good on paper  just going through the motions. Afterwards, the nWo beat on Sting, but Giant makes the save. DUD

BUExperience: Kind of a weak episode, as the Bagwell injury ate up a huge chunk of time, and there wasn’t much else of note. This wasn’t bad, just not especially strong.