Original Airdate: May 4, 1998
From Indianapolis, Indiana; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (first half) and Bobby Heenan (second half)
Nitro Girls
Chavo Guerrero Jr v Scott Norton: Eddie Guerrero offers to take the match to ‘show Chavo how it’s done,’ but then immediately gets a ‘knee injury,’ and so Chavo has to wrestle after all. Scott beats Guerrero into the corner and nails him with a shoulderblock, and a press-slam follows. Scott decides to attack Eddie too, but Chavo saves by clipping the leg, and he splashes the part. Chavo hammers on the leg, but walks into a powerslam, and Norton delivers an inverted shoulderbreaker at 2:26. The bulk of that was Eddie clowning around, though. Afterwards, Ultimo Dragon comes out to check on Chavo, which seems to annoy Eddie. DUD
Kidman v Scott Putski: Putski is dressed like AJ Styles, down to the gloves. Scott with a hiptoss into a wristlock right away, but Kidman fights to a vertical base, so Scott uses a short-clothesline. A bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop for two, and a corner whip looks to set up a side suplex, but Kidman blocks. Kidman with a bulldog and a slingshot legdrop, but Scott comes back with a sitout powerbomb, as Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and Konnan make their way through the crowd. Scott with a powerslam and an overhead suplex, but the nWo come in and attack for the no-contest at 2:12. Quite the debut. So, with that pesky match thing over with, we get the real main event: Kevin Nash talking! They officially christen themselves the nWo Wolfpac, show off their new black/red gear, and introduce Curt Hennig as a member. That draws Brian Adams out to protest, but Konnan protests his protest. ½*
Raven vignette. He had a rough childhood
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chris Jericho v Borus Malenko: Jericho mocks Dean Malenko by giving us ‘Bore Us’ Malenko, who is WCW enhancement guy Johnny Boone in Dean’s gear. They don’t actually acknowledge who Boone is, though. So Malenko works a wristlock to start, but Jericho quickly escapes, and delivers a hanging vertical suplex. A cross corner clothesline connects, and Malenko has a ‘1’ on the back of his tights, instead of ‘1,000.’ Nice touch. Chris with the Liontamer at 1:51. DUD
Nitro Girls, but Alex Wright interrupts, wanting to get his boogie on
Handicap Street Fight: Public Enemy v Barbarian, Hugh Morrus, and Jimmy Hart: They get going before the entrances are even through, and everyone trades weapon shots, as Hart just kind of putters around taking swipes at opportune moments. That is, until Johnny Grunge catches him, and delivers a splash at 2:56. A couple of nice bumps peppered in, nothing more. ¼*
Gene Okerlund brings Brian Adams out, and he’s literally slinging third grade level insults. I mean, that might have gotten him a main event run in 2012 WWE, but this is the Attitude Era. Anyway, he wants a piece of Konnan in response for the protest of the protest. Checks out
WCW Television Champion Booker T/Chris Benoit video, hyping their showdown at Slamboree
Loser Leaves the Flock Match: Saturn v Hammer: Kidman adds the stipulation just before the bell, apparently on orders from Raven. Hammer attacks before the bell, dumping Saturn to the outside right away, and dropping him onto the steps. Inside, Hammer tries a helicopter powerbomb, but it doesn’t really click. Hammer with an inverted vertical suplex, but a corner charge misses, and Saturn delivers a suplex of his own. Saturn unloads in the corner, and a clothesline sends both men tumbling over the top, as we split screen to watch the Flock watching from backstage. Saturn with a rana on the floor, but Hammer catches him in a powerslam during a flying bodypress attempt on the way back into the ring. That allows Hammer a vertical superplex, but Saturn fights him off, and cobra suplexes him to set up a flying legdrop. Saturn brings a chair in for a springboard corner dropkick, but a second one hits the referee by accident. That allows Hammer to grab the chair, but Saturn dropkicks it back into his face. He sets up the death valley driver, when a ‘concession vendor’ comes into the ring. He takes both guys out, and Hammer ends up on top for the pin at 4:25. This wasn’t good, but I dug how hard Hammer was working here, trying all kinds of unique stuff. * ½
Backstage, Diamond Dallas Page bursts into the Flock’s dressing room, and kicks the shit out of everyone. He drags Raven out into the arena with a bull rope around his neck, and tries hanging him over the ropes, before officials make the save
Nitro Girls. Nice palate cleanser after the attempted murder in the last segment
Juventud Guerrera v Sick Boy: Boy attacks him right away, pounding Guerrera down in the corner, and bootchoking him there. A criss cross ends in Boy delivering a fireman facebuster for two, but a tilt-a-whirl ends up in a botch as they wipe out. The mat is covered in water after the ‘vendor’ in the last match, so that’s more on WCW’s crew than the workers. Guerrera with a flying dropkick, and a scoop sitout brainbuster nearly goes south due to the water. Guerrera goes up to finish, but Horace Boulder comes in for the DQ at 2:50, and the Flock deliver a beating afterwards, until WCW United States Champion Bill Goldberg makes the save. ¼*
Gene brings Rick Steiner out, and he wants his brother Scott to come out and talk to him face to face. Scott obliges, but he’s on crutches, so he definitely won’t be accepting any of Rick’s challenges. But anyway, he’s all apologetic, and literally in tears: he wants to reform the Steiner Brothers! Rick is skeptical, but ultimately accepts - only for Brian Adams to run out to attack him with a bat during the embrace! Scott cheers the beating on, and then reveals that he isn’t really hurt, and hits Rick with his crutch for good measure. This wasn’t a great segment, but Scott Steiner was great in it
Konnan v Brian Adams: Konnan throws his shirt at Adams, and pounds him down to kickstart things. A rolling clothesline connects, and a snapmare sets up a seated dropkick. Backdrop, but Brian counters with a piledriver, and adds a legdrop. Adams dumps him to the outside, where Bret Hart shows up out of nowhere to smash Konnan’s face into the guardrail. He rolls him in for Adams to drop with a press-slam, and a backbreaker follows. Adams adds a tilt-a-whirl slam, but Kevin Nash waltzes in to attack him for the DQ at 2:38. DUD
Nitro Girls
Nitro Party video. A weirder one than usual, which is saying something
WCW Television Title Match: Booker T v Fit Finlay: Fit wins the initial lockup battle by hammering Booker in the corner, and a kick to the ribs gets him one. Fit goes to a leglock, but Booker escapes, and spinkicks him. A backdrop dumps Fit over the top, and Booker drags him back in, but Finlay nails him with a short-clothesline on the way. A criss cross ends in Booker delivering a jumping forearm, so Fit goes to the eyes, but Booker counters a tombstone with an axekick. Booker adds a spinebuster, and a flapjack follows, as Chris Benoit shows up at ringside. Booker gets distracted by him, allowing Finlay to attack with the tombstone, and we have a new champion at 3:57. Well, that was unexpected. ½*
Lex Luger v Kevin Nash: They put this over like it’s a really huge match, but really, we’ve already seen them fight about a million different times in different situations. And there’s four minutes of airtime left, so the ring announcements will probably be more epic than anything they’re going to do in the ring here. Lex gets him in the corner for a ten-punch right away, so Konnan distracts him, and Nash throws a big boot. Nash unload sin the corner, as Bobby explains that the nWo was really dangerous when they were united. But now they’re dangerous because there are two groups to worry about. Well, glad we cleared that up. Nash with a straddling ropechoke and a bootchoke, followed by a cross corner clothesline. Again, but Lex blocks, and delivers a pair of clotheslines. Cue Konnan and Randy Savage, and it’s a DQ at 2:44. Yep, pretty epic. Afterwards, Sting and Giant run in to make the save, and everyone brawls. Brian Adams comes out to get involved, but Bret Hart cuts him off in the aisle, telling him to sit back and enjoy the warring factions. So much wasted talent in this segment. DUD
BUExperience: This was a really bad show, going in about a million different directions, while also feeling completely directionless. Next week, they go back to their usual time slot though, which should be interesting, because obviously the WWF has been taking advantage of their getting bounced in favor of the NBA.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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